#.... its still kind of generic because my favorite colors are green and yellow

[amphibianaday]

day 1206

generally i'll draw myself the most generic frog or toad i can think of but i thought it'd be fun to make a more self-indulgent "frogsona" for this day :)

[adobe-outdesign]

have you reviewed the Christmas paintbrush colour?

(This is the only Neopet review in the inbox right now, so send requests if you have them.)

Christmas is kind of a weird concept for a colour, mostly because of its name—after all, the existence of "Christmas" on Neopets implies that there's a Neo-Jesus that died for your sins. The actual Christmas equivalent of Christmas on Neopets is called the Day of Giving (taking place during the Month of Celebrating, i.e., December). Obviously "Day of Giving" is too much of a mouthful for a paintbrush colour, but they could've gone for something like "festive" or "holiday" instead. This would also accommodate other religions, as not all Christmas pets are Christmas-exclusive (the Christmas Pteri is a European robin—which is associated with Christmas over there, but is also just, like, a normal bird).

Anyway, in terms of the actual colour, there's not a whole lot of visual consistency. However, there is a lot of thematic consistency, and enough repeated colors and elements that it still comes across as cohesive. Common colors are white, green, red, gold, and sometimes brown (for reindeer-based pets), and common elements include candy cane striping, holly, bows, Santa outfits, scarves, and more. When good, it's a surprisingly really nice colour with a lot of customization potential. When bad, it's...well, pretty terrible (there were a lot of contenders for the Least Favorite Species winner here).

In terms of customization, Christmas pets generally fared well because there's nothing there that inherently doesn't work well with the pre-made pet templates, and they got a major benefit in the form of being able to remove their accesories to allow for more base colour options. However, I have noticed TNT got a bit sloppy when converting these guys, and you'll notice things like eye colors randomly changing after conversion for no reason.

Favorite Species:

Peophin: Peophins are an inherently beautiful species of pet, and the Christmas Peophin is unsurprisingly one of the most beautiful Christmas pets out there. The dark green base is very classy and contrasts beautifully with the cream-color accents, including some extra fluff around the hooves reminiscent of a shire horse. The big red bow provides a focal point and a nice additional pop of color, and is accented by holly berries both by the ear and the face plate. As a bonus, the clothes are optional.

My only nitpicks are that the lines around the hoof fluff are colored, but the lines around the mane are not. Also, I wish the holly berry was wearable, as it's the only Christmas-specific element left on the base. Still, a very nice colour overall.

Zafara: The only Christmas pet to be religion-based instead of aesthetic-based, the Christmas Zafara is super simple but very pretty. The white body and gold accents are very pretty, and the inclusion of wings and a halo look surprisingly natural. Both are also unexpectedly wearable items, resulting in a base that's like a mix of a yellow and white Zafara. My only nitpick is that, once again, the lines keep switching between being black and being colored. Also, the nose would've been better black. Otherwise, this one's very pretty.

Gnorbu: Both the Gnorbu and Bori are great Christmas pets with white bases and red and green accents, but I had to give this spot to the Gnorbu just because I think the design's extra cohesive—white base with no markings except for the dark-green spots, which go along with the eye, ears, and mane, which has some Christmas tree-esq decorations. I do wish the bow and lights were removable, as it's a lot more limited customization-wise than most pets, but it's still very pretty.

Vandagyre: One of the few good Vandagyre colours, the Christmas Vandagyre has two great designs—the main design has an outfit that's vaguely Santa Claus-esq, but a bit more detailed and sophisticated with elements like a walking staff and a gold undershirt, while the base has black markings reminiscent of a snowy owl (though TNT have stated it's a actually a gyr falcon, the Vandagyre's namesake). Good stuff all around.

Least Favorite Species:

Usul: There were a lot of strong contenders for this spot (pets like the Meerca, Moehog, and Lutari were up there, for example), but I have to give it to the Christmas Usul for having no effort put into it whatsoever. The base is literally just a yellow Usul with a slightly darker bow for no reason, and the only festive elements are a badly-drawn elf had a pair of tacky ears. Couldn't this have been, like, a white body with a big red present bow and striped mane or something? Or at least a full-body outfit, if they wanted to go the elf route that badly? Bah, humbug.

[sokoneedsagun]

Batfamily mer au

Bruce - Tiger shark

Tiger sharks are generally a solitary species, the coloring fits him (usually grey with darker grey stripes, although the stripes fade as they get older), they’re one of the largest species of shark and just like have you seen Bruce?

Kate - Stingray

Stingrays are actually the closest relatives to sharks, so since Kate is Bruce’s cousin I think it would make sense for her to be something similarly related to sharks while not being a shark herself. Some stingrays have specialized jaws that allow them to crush sculls, and I think that sounds cool for one thing and for another could be kind of fitting considering that Kate has killed. Some stingrays are also able to change color over the course of a few days to adapt to their habitats, so I kind of imagine Kate being a brownish red color or a dark grey, stingrays also tend to be non-aggressive to humans until they’re threatened

Dick - Redtoothed Triggerfish

So first of all the coloring was enough. But these fish also always seem to be grinning which exposes their red teeth, similar to how child Dick would fucking laugh during fights and stuff, something that should be cute but is a little objectively terrifying. They’re also more peaceful than other triggerfish but can become more violent/aggressive with age, they have a special swimming style because of the shape of their fins, many of them are solitary but some of them stay in groups

Barbara - Crystal Jelly

They’re a species of jellyfish create a green fluorescent protein and two different bioluminescent proteins which causes its green-blue coloring (I’m colorblind, that’s how I saw it described), they’re almost entirely transparent and colorless, these jellyfish were the reason a 2008 Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded, one of the main reasons I picked jellyfish for Barbra though is that jellyfish don’t swim in a traditional way. The only way a jellyfish can swim is by squeezing the top of their body (the bell) and ejecting water in the opposite direction to push themselves forward, and even with that they’re some of the most efficient swimmers in the entire ocean. And idk, I really like the fact that when dc actually let Barbra be disabled they gave her actual limitations but she still found ways to work with them and still be herself, so in an au like this where it would realistically be a bit harder for her then other batfamily members it kinda made sense to me

Jason - red-tailed black shark

So these actually aren’t sharks at all they’re closer related to carp, but they’re extremely small (Robin!jason?) around 6 inches (16 cm), they’re very territorial and harass other fish when they enter their territory, juveniles tend to be calmer then adults

Cass - Blacktip reef shark

Genuinely one of my favorite sharks. So usually blacktip reef sharks are fairly skittish and avoid humans, but when humans wade into the water near them they do bite, they can be found up to 75 meters deep but usually stay in shallow waters, they’re generally a smaller species of shark and fall prey to things like tiger sharks, but they’re still an apex predator.

Tim - sockeye salmon

They’re a type of mainly red but also green salmon, they can be anywhere from 2 feet long to 2 foot 9, most sockeye salmon start out in freshwater as children before going to the ocean, then once again returning to freshwater as adults (so maybe Tim meeting the rest of the batfamily while going to the ocean and just staying)

Stephanie - Purple Tang

Just the color was enough to pick this for Steph, but some other reasons: younger purple tang are described as “cryptic” and tend to hide a lot which reminds me of the very beginnings of spoiler, while they can be generally peaceful others can be aggressive and territorial, and they’re very active fish

Duke - Pacific sea nettle

It was so hard to find a bioluminescent yellow jellyfish./lh they have a golden bell (kind of like the head) and can grow to be up to a meter, their carnivorous and use their tentacles and toxins to find food, and produce bioluminescent glow that lights up their tenticals

Damian - Spiny Dogfish

So despite the name this is actually a type of shark (I thought it would make sense for Damian to be a shark since Bruce is), they have two spines and there’s actually a comic series that gave Damian a replacement spine (we don’t talk about why. I’m only using the information for my benefit.), the spines are used defensively and they can arch their backs to pierce whatever is holding them and also make a venom, they hunt in packs up to a thousand and are very aggressive hunters (league maybe?)

I’m not actually (probably) writing a fic or anything about this, but if you are, feel free to use some of these!

[myrandomscribbles]

One Short Day in the Emerald City: My Review of Wicked (2024)

For my first post, I think it would be perfect to kick it off with a movie review - which, by the way, this blog will be 90% filled with lol - so here it goes!

It's been more a week since my friends and I saw Jon M. Chu's Wicked (2024) in theaters. It was opening weekend so you can expect the cinemas to be jam-packed. But probably my favorite part pre-movie (aside from the popcorn!) was the ongoing trend of people showing up at the cinemas in costume or following the theme of the movie. This trend is one of the reasons I love going to the cinemas versus just streaming it at home. So imagine, we arrived about 15 minutes before the start and the lobby & popcorn lines were filled with people wearing pink & green. I myself was wearing a green knitted top and pink shorts! As funny as it sounds, it literally gives life to the meme of the cinema ticket person asking what movie the person is seeing and the camera pans to the moviegoers in costume. Absolutely hilarious. (And I thank Avengers: Infinity War for starting this trend & the Barbenheimer craze for heightening it!)

Also, I wanted to add that this experience was personally special because I bumped into my favorite high school teacher of all places! We haven't seen each other in years, so this was really a delight.

(By the way, this may be a spoiler-ish review when it comes to the technicalities but in terms of the story - unless you haven't seen the Broadway musical or seen the 1939 film, then I don't know what to tell you lmao)

Now on to the movie itself... The title card!!! From there, I knew right away that this film was not just going to pay homage to the timeless classic that is The Wizard of Oz (1939), but to create a new world of Oz for this generation without losing the magic of the original. We see right away the iconic quartet walking down the famous yellow brick road, snippets of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" in the music, and the dazzling Emerald City. For a semi-theater kid (I say semi because I grew up with musicals, just didn't get involved with acting in any of them at school or anything lol), I was already having goosebumps in the first few minutes.

Of course, Wicked is known for its many iconic songs that legends Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have made timeless, but my personal favorites are "What Is This Feeling?", "Dancing Through Life", "For Good", and of course, "Defying Gravity". Now obviously with the exception of "For Good", the other three musical numbers really lived up to expectations. "What Is This Feeling?" now has the dance routine as an online trend everywhere, "Dancing Through Life" just made you want to marry Jonathan Bailey right there, and "Defying Gravity" was just mind-blowing. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande nailed it, especially with the fact that they were apparently singing that number live! I also loved Ariana's version of "Popular"; she sounds so much like Kristin but still made it her own! (Plus not to mention she feels like Sharpay Evans in another universe in that scene lol)

Now before the film came out, it was already met with a lot of criticism especially with how dull the lighting and coloring was. Now I'm not a technical expert nor do I have any kind of film knowledge in that sense, but I agree that in many scenes, the lighting and coloring could have been better. This movie was meant to be a colorful world and most musicals are supposed to be vibrant (unless of course the musical is Les Miserables or Sweeney Todd lol). I agree in that sense wherein it could've been better. Though I read somewhere that the director, Jon M. Chu wanted it to feel like a "real place" that the audience can visit so it has a more realistic rather than fantasy vibe - but if you ask me, this defeats the fact that, my brother in Christ, Oz is literally a magical land. On the other hand, I admired the fact that many of the scenes were practical sets and minimal CGI was used. For a film that pays homage to and is a prequel to one of the first films ever in technicolor, they slipped a bit on the color part but did good on the set production part.

Look, I'm biased here okay. I love Wicked so much, it's one of my favorite musicals ever, just behind The Sound of Music and Les Miserables. Seeing it come to life on the big screen has been something I've been asking for for years. I first saw the theater musical in 2013 and immediately fell in love with it, especially since it was connected to the story of Dorothy. Imagine, there is only a teeny tiny portion of the world's population who's still alive today and saw The Wizard of Oz in 1939, so this film is a whole new experience for today's generation. Jon M. Chu was the perfect director for this; after Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and In the Heights (2021), he's clearly meant for vibrant (in the literal and fictional sense) stories that pops. I'm still in awe of Cynthia and Ariana's vocals; I didn't know Ariana could hit opera-level octaves, wow. I'm so excited for Part 2 next year, and I can't wait to see what awards season will bring for this film. And I may sound like an overused tape recorder, but I have been changed for good after seeing this!

P.S. Enjoy a photo of a sticker I made on the official backdrop; isn't it prettyyy 💚

[danpuff-ao3]

(PRIDE)

This month I've decorated our calendar in Pride colors.

To explain: my office has a dry erase calendar. The ungodly maniac who created it decided it should be Monday-Sunday. I mention this not because it's at all important, but because I need to vent about how much I hate it at every given opportunity. Anyway, back to the point: dry erase calendar. Each month I fill in the calendar with the month, year, and all of its days. Each month I give 2 colors: 1 color for normal days and 1 color for "special days" (holidays and coworker birthdays.) The 2 colors change per month. Red and blue for July. Red and green for December. Orange and black for October. Last month, May, I chose pink and green because it was my birth month and I chose some of my favorite colors.

This month, every Monday is red. Every Tuesday is orange. Every Wednesday is lime green (there is no yellow!) Thursdays are dark green. Fridays are blue. Saturdays and Sundays are the closest colors I could get to "indigo" and "violet." This means instead of swapping between 2 markers, I have to keep all 7 at the calendar, and dig out which one I need to mark off any given day. It's a bit of a hassle but I like the extra color and I really like the nod to Pride.

Why this matters is I half expected to get in trouble. You see, I live in the Bible belt of the U.S. I live in a very rural city. Technically it's called a city, but it's a laughable excuse for one, and yeah quite rural. Quite conservative. Quite Christian. The sort of place where no one is racist or homophobic "buuuut...."

No one said anything at first, but on Friday one of our workers said "I like the calendar!" which I proudly zoomed out of my office to take ownership of. "That was me!" Said worker was very enthusiastic about it, and appreciated it as "it's the details!" She's only one person, but her support made me feel better about my decision. My Boss was sitting there when she said this, and his lack of commentary further relieved me. Clearly he was aware of it and had no problem with it. Phew!

Later that afternoon, a handful of us gathered around another coworker as she lamented how her daughter has been distant from her. She never outright said it, but strongly hinted that her daughter recently came out as a lesbian and she may or may not have a girlfriend. This coworker is very "love the sinner hate the sin." She never outright says anything. But if you listen long enough, you get the picture.

The trouble is, I otherwise really like this coworker. She's funny, vivacious, generous, kind. She just is also very Christian and very married to her beliefs. She doesn't hate anyone, you see. She just can't "support" everyone and everything.

To hear her tell it, her relationship with her daughter was fine after all of this. She wouldn't really hear a word about it. But me...I don't know. Maybe the daughter was relieved at first that her mother didn't hate her, but over time it grated at her. Maybe it was fine before she had a girlfriend, but now that she has an actual partner, her parents' position on the matter is more of a problem. My coworker thinks the girlfriend is a "bad influence" but as for me...I don't know.

In fairness, I don't know the daughter or the girlfriend. Maybe my coworker is right. Maybe the daughter doesn't care that her parents love her, but hate her "sin." Maybe her girlfriend really is a bad influence. But I can't help but really doubt it.

I like this coworker. It makes me sad that she's so hurt. I don't like anyone to hurt. But also....I can't help but hope her daughter keeps her distance. Her daughter is young and, while an adult and living on her own, still relies on her parents for so much. I really hope that she can break away from needing them. That she can take care of herself and not need to keep people in her life who don't really accept her. I've never met this woman in my life, but I ache for her.

What my very Christian coworkers don't know is that I'm agnostic. Also: asexual. That last one might not mean much to them. It's not anything people take very seriously. At best they sort of shrug it off. At worst people are confused or think I'm confused. Even people in the LGBT+ community don't think we belong with them.

It's easy in some ways. I'm a cis woman and my partner is a cis man and no one looks at us twice. No one's really going to be on my case unless I make a big deal out of my identity.

The problem is, it's a big deal to me. I spent years and years feeling broken and confused. I had no comprehension of what asexuality really was until my early to mid twenties. Once it was on my radar, it still took me years to sort it all out. I was 26 before I really found a way to explain who I am and what I experience: sex-favorable asexual! Even now it feels like such an important thing because even if not everyone will understand, I at least understand it myself, and have some tools to try to help people understand. The words make me feel comfortable, and valid, and whole. And not crazy. Not broken. It feels nice to know I'm not alone. That there are people out there who feel the way I do, and experience what I do.

Since the start of the month I've seen friends make their own pride posts, and I've wanted to make posts of my own, but it always felt icky. Wrong. Am I overstepping if I talk about it? Not everyone thinks we belong, after all. We don't really "count" as queer to everyone.

So maybe it's easier in some ways. In other ways, though....it can feel like such a small and lonely place to be.

My world is bigger than the small-minded small-town I'm physically in. I have friends all over the world. Friends from different places, with different faiths, and different orientations. Most of my friends are queer and neurotypical and just as "weird" as me. I have a place I belong and people I belong with, even if they're not a walk down the street, or even a car drive to the next town over. I'm lucky in some ways.

And foolish in others.

I forget sometimes just how small people can be. Many of those around me scoff at Pride. Who needs Pride anyway? There are rainbows all over! Rainbows belong to GOD and the GAYS STOLE IT. What about straight pride? The world isn't really homophobic anymore. They're not homophobic, really, but...

Since Friday I've not been so proud of my pride calendar. It's such a small and silly thing. This office is so gray. Gray floors and gray walls. The sky outside is gray. My little rainbow calendar looks so sad. It's not really do anything.

Except, it meant something to someone. One person's day was brightened to see it. And maybe that's all that will happen. But maybe someone will come into our office...someone like my coworker's daughter...and maybe they'll see it and feel less alone. Even if they don't know who, even with nothing else, maybe just knowing that someone here supports them...maybe it can mean something to someone. I know how important it's been for me to feel less alone.

And even though it feels so small, every day I rummage for the corresponding color and mark off another brightly colored day.

[yichens]

If anyone out there (I saw your tags Vi @isvisomewhere) is interested in knowing how I choose the colors for each of my Our Skyy 2 episode edits, here’s the story:

So, to put it simply, I just know. Sounds silly? Yeah, kind of is. But each episode has those 1-2 scenes that get stuck in my head and reveal the color to me. It’s that easy! (Or hard. Some episodes are easier than others to place. Some episodes have several colors I could use but then one color just takes the crown, so to speak.)

Now, after several of these edits, I also try to consider what colors I have already used and which ones still remain unseen. I hope to create variety, and so far, I think I’ve managed to accomplish that. I also enjoy naming the episodes, but I’ll ramble about that separately at the end of this. 

Listing the episodes and the reasons for my color choices, mostly to my own amusement:

Episodes 1 & 2: Both the Never Let Me Go episodes come down to Palm’s outfits in the old times. In the first episode, he wears this olive green shirt when he first wakes up as the lord and I adored that color so I decided to use it. It also seemed to fit the overall greenery in many of the other scenes, and making the green turn more towards yellow fit well with the bathroom scene (which, despite being kind of funny, looked very pretty imo). 

The second color comes down to the shirt Palm wears when he comes to sneak a peek at Nueng's English lessons to the servants. I loved the darker shade of pink on his shirt, so I searched for a red color close to that and came across burgundy. It felt fitting when the scene with Phum/Petch and his merchant crush made me see pink too. (I wish I could’ve used Nueng’s stunning umbrella scene in this edit, and I first thought I would take the red from there just because, but eventually left it out.)

Episodes 3 & 4:

Star in My Mind as a show itself is very blue coded for me, so that was one of the colors I had in my head when I first went into these episodes. But the things is, I am generally trying to pick colors that are “surprising” considering these shows and their common color themes (i.e. picking green and pink/red for NLMG instead of orange/brown or yellow), but this first episode didn’t give me much to work with, sadly. 

The cinematography in SIMM is a lot more simple than it is, let’s say, in Vice Versa where this whole edit series idea stems from, so I gave in to the blue. Another color I considered beside it was yellow (for the continuous sunflower symbolism and the sunflower apearing in the first episode occasionally), but eventually the scene with Daonuea on the balcony with the night sky behind him (the first pic) made the choice for me. The duvet on KluenDao’s joined bed also played its part.

The other color for them being orange was a funny one tbh. I knew I wanted to include the scene of Daonuea walking across the floor with the rose petals, but refused to pick red just because of that. Instead, the tent in which Kluen and Dao spend their night, happened to gift orange to me. There’s literally just a tiny streak of orange in the picture of Dao’s face where he’s looking up at Kluen, but my brain still got stuck on that. The tent refused to leave me, and so I made it fit. Eventually, I think orange was a good choice and made these episodes a bit moe interesting. 

Episodes 5 & 6:

Knowing The Eclipse was very dark themed and seemed to lean towards black (& white?) a lot, I decided to not use those colors for these episodes. Thankfully, these episodes were extra colorful instead and offered me several options. After using orange for the previous set, it felt a bit silly but also funny to use yellow for episode 5, but I couldn’t get that old train station(?) with the bright yellow station building out of my head. It was just so beautiful I knew I wanted to include it, and I feel like yellow worked very well for this show. (My personal favorite out of all the images I’ve edited for these sets until now is still the second pic in this edit btw. I love Ayan in his country outfit, with his motorbike, looking over the lake.)  Pine seemed to come for me from every direction while watching the second episode of The Eclipse. I first noticed the color in Thua’s shirt, which appears in two of the pics too. Another scene that played its part was Teacher Sani sitting in the café, surrounded by this delicate, ligh blue. One more player were the lights in the bar they celebrate Akk’s birthday and Wat’s award in, as it already colored Ayan’s hair with this blue green. All this combined, I decided I would create a gradient where it goes from blue to green, varying in darkness and intensity. (I hope that in one of the last six edits, I get to use another gradient like this to balance it out.)

Episodes 7 & 8:

Tbh I did not expect Vice Versa to continue with the color name titles for the episodes in Our Skyy 2. Everyone has been saying they would, but I never truly trusted that. I figured that as NLMG left out the episode titles seen in the original series, Vice Versa would follow the same rules. Relying on this, I had kind of already decided I would bend these episodes to my will and use two colors I associate with VV the most: pink and purple. (Because with this show, I would absolutely be sentimental about colors.) 

When we got the color titles after all, this plan flew out the window. It made choosing the colors a lot easier, but also allowed me to play around with this concept a little. I strictly followed the same pattern while making my original VV episode edits (until the last episode which was special), so I decided these two would be wilder. The first episode took the title very literally – the pink is “fading” throughout the frames. Which means only certain parts of the images kept the color and others I turned to gray. In the last image, the pink is so light you can barely see it.  

Multi color then made me think about rainbows and color mixes. I generally love gifsets where gifmakers play around with a show’s own color palettes and especially contrasting colors. I thought this could maybe work with the colors turning into different gradients for each picture. I started looking for scenes that would fit that idea. I first decided on the pink/green in the bathtub scene, then the obvious blue/yellow as Puen and Talay sit outside the house after Talay’s outburst to Jigsaw. The final beach scene was also obviously purple/yellow, and the rest just came from there. This one was a more of a challenge than the others, but rightfully so. I wasn’t even mad. 

Episodes 9 & 10:

From previous experience, I knew My School President was going to be filled with colors. These people are young, and I love how all of their outfits and even the environments show that. Everything is bursting with color and the cinematography is so nice. I love how the friendgroup even has matching outfits most of the time, or at least the color scheme is very pleasing to the eye. 

Black turned out to be my first color choice for this show only because of two very specific moments: 1) Tinn in his black tuxedo during their ballroom dance and 2) Gun in his dark blue sweatshirt when he and Tinn are sleeping together in Gun’s house. Before these two scenes I had considered yellow again very seriously as yellow is very much Tinn’s and so Lion’s color, but tbh I am very happy with black. It gave this show a very different feeling, which fits well with the idea of choosing surprising colors.  The second episode was a lot more complicated, the hardest one so far. It took some thinking to actually come up with a color. Usually, one or two options will appear in my head while I’m watching the episode, but this time I drew blank. I was wondering if I should just take the obvious one and go with green (or something like jade) because of their sport uniforms, but I felt against it. 

Then it clicked. There was a lot of yellow and blue in this episode – and somehow my head decided copper was both the name and the color to go for. It appears a lot in the brick walls of the surrounding buildings plus I loved changing the yellow behind Lion’s practice room into this orange hue. It makes the whole scene look super soft. I am very happy, even if I first thought maybe this was going to be too close to the orange I already used.

- 

As we’re not done with this series quite yet, I’ll probably add my thoughts on the rest of the episodes here too so I can have everything in the same post. Feel free to check back on this post occasionally if you’re interested!

-

And lastly, a couple of words on the episode titles:

Picking those has been its own type of journey. I love the names in Vice Versa as each one seems very fitting for both the color and the episode itself. I wanted to continue that “tradition”, but instead of choosing already existing color names like VV did, I wanted to make up my own that would feel like real color names.  

These names had to feel unique to the episodes they are representing. So I tried to pick up central themes or any specific detail that were important to these different shows and their two episodes. It helps when I’ve watched all of these before and know what is significant to the characters, because even in these “special episodes” they haven’t strayed too far from those. 

I don’t know how well I’ve managed with the naming overall so far but I’ve seen some nice tags saying they like the names a lot. So thank you! I’m happy if these edits have brought some joy to the people following this insane journey with me. 

-

P.S. Each couple’s “last” episode includes my thanks to the pairing through something important they have taught us or given us/each other. I first thought I would just include the same thanks to each pair but then wanted it to be more specific. I’m attached to all of them in some way, so the thank yous have been my personal goodbyes to them ♥

[cyberfunsupporter]

ranking the red velvet album covers, be warned this’ll be long

halfway through tumblr deleted my draft so um…

1-3 🏆

28 reasons very visually pleasing. the red and the black go so well together and the mirror showing seulgi is just creative genius. absolute fav, i could stare at it forever to be honest. not to mention it perfectly reflects the album’s contents which is a huge bonus for me

the red summer i have a huge soft spot for covers with a lot going on actually. the cover’s fun, very summer and even with vibrant colors that would normally clash in the real world, it’s somehow satisfying. i love all of the details too and the way the members are positioned on the cover. so fun

rbb the positioning of the members + the teeth is just fun to see. it’s definitely different from a lot of their other covers which makes it more interesting for me as well. i also just really like their outfits, especially yeri’s

4-6 🏅

chill kill what’s funny to me about this one is the fact it’s photoshopped like omg they couldn’t even get an ot5 pic wow. but i like the overall vibe of it a lot and it’s a drastic change from red velvet’s typical colorful covers, which also makes this one stand out to me. i also am just a huge fan of this album anyway and think the feeling of it was perfectly executed which obviously extends to the cover since that plays a huge role in the concept anyway

perfect velvet okay actually this used to my favorite album, cover, concept, etc… it’s definitely their prettiest & most visually interesting, but i’ve grown. it’s still really cool and my fav part is the incorporation of the title but i don’t think it’s their absolute best cover regardless of its quality and general appeal LOL. it’s been a bit overdone i think? still a huge fav tho

the red it’s iconic and very pretty. honestly i don’t have much to say because it’s just that good. it really pops. eye candy for me

reve festival is actually not in order of how i’d rank the covers because i have a more pressing criticism regarding the overall trilogy’s design

they’re all meant to be connected, yet finale is randomly like. SO different. it doesn’t even have a rollercoaster that connects through it the way day 1 and day 2 have… sm paid for a cover to be made and couldn’t scrounge up a couple more pennies for a damn rollercoaster 😭 i just hate that disconnect so much because they’re literally MEANT TO GO TOGETHER and they already did that for 2/3 of the albums so idk why finale’s suddenly different. ugh

anyway, onto the actual ranking:

finale it’s the most creative and very cute. i love the house details w the velvets inside + one trapped under the house, as well as the surroundings. typically not a fan of green but this shade is pleasing to my eyes

day 2 the purple is very beautiful especially when combined with the red of the rollercoaster. the “events” on the cover are also really cutely designed and it def appeals to me a lot

day 1 my main complaint is the yellow. i hate the color yellow and this shade in particular is offensive to my eyes. i like the rest of the cover though which is a shame… but that’s why it’s so high for me; everything BUT the background color is great. it’s fun

10-12 🎖️

rookie it’s very eye catching, the blue is wonderful and the positioning of the titles as well as the members is creative and i like it a lot. also having seulgi in the middle is another part i enjoy, simply because she has an interesting pose and i feel like it tells you a lot about the album’s sound

bloom what annoys me is the fact the title seems to be off center? but i like the overall feel of the cover and the doodles are really cute

sappy it’s cute and charming, their styling is unique and i love the colors!!! it does kind of bother me that wendy, irene, and yeri have similar hair colors and then joy and seulgi don’t but it’s just a minor thing. i do love their hair colors it’s just the inconsistency/out of nowhere-ness that can grate me a little bit. but overall very fun and cute

13-15 🎖️

the velvet well this one is just pretty. idk why yeri’s blurred out though 💀

feel my rhythm i like the logo being in the clouds. cute, fun, very springtime, good colors

power up love a good ot5 focused cover. the background is a bit boring but i don’t really care because the velvets make it interesting

16-18 🎖️

the perfect red velvet one of my fav covers however i can recognize it’s not as visually interesting as a lot of red velvet’s covers. i love the fact it looks like a movie poster though so it’s definitely very special to me

birthday UNDERRATED. IDGAF. the pink is perfect, the design is engaging and vibrant… the logo is unique…. very solid cover

ice cream cake see i’m fond of this because it represents when red velvet really began & became 5. however the bg doodles are a bit too pale which makes the cover seem kinda bland otherwise. the drawing of all 5 members is pretty though so

19-21 🎖️

happiness once again i’m very fond of a slightly overwhelming and very colorful cover. the editing is kooky which i enjoy although many people don’t like it, it just radiates 2014 and i just luv what red velvet did with what they had in that time period. it’s so fun!!

queendom i like this cover and the colors are nice but i also think some of the concept photos for this could’ve been better suited to be the cover. i do like that it looks like they’re all just kinda hanging out tho

hello the background is just a boring white but joy’s pose combined with her outfit really makes it pop to me. like my eyes are consistently drawn to it because of that

22-24 🎖️

be natural i like the pose and the monochrome, and the logo is really cool to me and def unique… a yeri-less rbb kinda. the white at the top cutting off the photo can be bothersome though

monster well the colors are just too boring for me but everything else is nice. the pose is good, the feeling radiating off of irene and seulgi is special, etc

wish you hell this one’s nice because it really feels like wendy. the helmet and the tag on the side are sooo cute. however in comparison to other covers it is a bit on the blander side which is why it’s so low, but i really like it!!!!

25-27 🎖️

russian roulette this one is definitely boring since it’s just the logo but i like the logo + combo of colors enough for it to outrank the next couple covers LOLLL. the title going through the heart as an arrow is just so cutesy

cosmic the album’s so vibrant and dreamy yet this cover represents none of that. i don’t get that feeling from this photo at all, not to mention the logo’s just slapped on there. i love the mysterious hotel concept but it was poorly executed which is why the cover falls flat for me despite it utilizing one of my fav parts of the concept… and tbh idk why they didn’t do something more similar to midsommar promo or at least something dreamy like that. just feels weird and a bit disappointing. they’re beautiful though

cookie jar boring & washed out… i love their stylings though which makes me feel better about it. the cover also does actually look like a cookie tin which is charming

… 28 👎

like water i loveee wendy i really do. her voice is angelic, she’s beautiful… but this cover is so boring. boring colors, no pose, not even a title or anything particularly special to make up for it. just wendy standing and a W slapped on there. not to mention the album just is completely not wendy’s vibe or vision so the whole album is just not very entertaining for me. it makes me sad that sm tried to force her into doing ballads forever 😭… so idk i just don’t feel very much for this cover nor the album. i’m so sorry wendy. u are so loved but they did u so dirty w your debut album…

[batmanego]

https://www.tumblr.com/janemorris/729013196299567104 can we go full supermarket sweep on jailbird im sso hungry

Yes. We can. but im putting it under a cut because its going to be so long + im taking out the questions i already did

glance: At first glance, what stands out most about your OC's appearance? What's their distinguishing feature?

THE HAIR. jailbird's hair is a defining feature. i actually made a little list of jailbird's most prominent features recently.

i still think the hair is probably his most defining feature, though it's pretty similar to glory's. i still think their silhouettes are distinct, though -- glory's hair is more coily, jb's is a little looser.

face: Describe your OC's face. What's their smile like? Are their orbs cerulean? What would someone notice first when looking at them?

still got baby fat. when he grows up, it's a little more angular, especially in the chin area, but he's always kind of got soft cheeks. he's got kind of a perma-scowl going on most of the time. when he does smile it's usually kind of malicious in nature. he has braces.

stature: What's your OC's body type? How tall are they? Do they wear clothing to accentuate their look or do they try to mask it?

skinny. skiiiiiiinny. jailbird isn't really malnourished, though he could probably stand to eat a little better, but he is scrawny. very gangly. every time i draw him i think his proportions lead people to believe he's much taller than he actually is: at the start of the story, he's about 5'1, and by the end he's about 5'4. in the epilogue, his adult height is roughly 5'7. his civvy clothing is intentionally pretty baggy and layered to give the impression of more meat on his bones.

motion: How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

jailbird is extremely flexible. think somewhere between a contortionist and a gymnast. he tends to move very quickly and always seems like he's in a hurry.

stillness: How does your OC act while still? Are they fidgety? Do they have any common gestures or tics? Does their clothing affect how they hold themselves while at rest?

jailbird is actually very good at sitting still. he has no problems with it. he can sit unmoving for as long as it takes, but only if he's doing it of his own volition. if you ask him to sit still, he gets huffy about it.

canvas: Does your OC have any scars, piercings, tattoos, or other markings? Do they display or cover them up at all?

jailbird has his ears pierced. i'm struggling to think of any tattoos he might want as an adult. he gets a WHOLE LOT OF SCARS during his time as a supervillain, the most notable of which is A MASSIVE SCAR ON HIS ABDOMENT from when he gets impaled on his own harpoon. Best birthday ever!

night: What does your OC wear to sleep? Do they have a favorite pair of PJs, or are they more the birthday suit type?

silk pajama set. monogrammed. Actually im laughing really hard at the image of him getting them monogrammed with "JV" because thats probably not what his "actual" initials are

day: What does your OC wear on a normal day? Why do they default to those clothes? Do they wear similar things, or do they change it up?

i've noted this in his character sheet:

generally, any t-shirt over any turtleneck, bonus points if red yellow black and white. this is really consistent in most if not all art of him.

you can even see it in haircut! red outline is apron, blue is shirt, green is turtleneck.

as a fun design note, the school colors were intentionally chosen to oppose he and eugene's natural red motifs. something about institutional repression of individualism... i can't remember my exact justification for it, but i know it was something like that.

formal: What's your OC's formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions?

jailbird's not a huge fan of fancy events. he gets dragged to them sometimes but otherwise wants to avoid the public eye. i'd say the most you'll get him in aside from his school uniform is a t-shirt, slacks, and a blazer.

informal: What's your OC's lazy-day look? How do they like to dress when they're winding down?

he's wearing it in haircut:

bunny socks are a feature that i outlined kind of as a joke while drafting haircut, but i liked the idea so much that they stuck around. anyway, it's his usual upper half with a pair of sweatpants or just loose cotton pants.

outerwear: What's your OC's outerwear situation? Jacket, sweater, cloak? What sort of weather do they deal with most and how do they protect themselves?

depends on the season. most of the time he'll forgo it. in the winter he gets what he's wearing in this picture:

(he's the one in the middle complaining.) he gets cold easily.

footwear: What does your OC wear on their feet?

combat boots or converse sneakers. when in costume he has those big knee high platforms. scary!

road: What does your OC wear while traveling? Do they have high-quality equipment, or are they making do? What does their gear look like?

jailbird doesn't really travel that much! if he did, he'd way overpack and use the most expensive equipment known to man. it would piss everyone off.

armor: What kind of armor does your OC wear? Is it well kept? Bonus: where does it come from? Is there a story behind it?

jailbird has padding under his suit. it's supposed to be at least somewhat bulletproof, though that's only on the chest and head. he learns after the "harpoon to the gut" incident why full body armor is likely a good idea. he also has elbow pads and the mask functions as a helmet.

arms: Does your OC have any weapons? What weapons do they carry, and how do they wear them when they're not fighting?

oh yes. Ohhh yes. one of my favorite jailbird gimmicks is his bottomless pouches -- he can store almost anything that will fit through the opening in them. however, he has only a rudimentary ability to control what he pulls out. the more he uses an item, the easier it is to find which is why his harpoon gun is easy and why it fits -- it's huge, but it's relatively narrow and can fit into the biggest pouch on his side, and it's his favorite weapon, so it's no problem.

roots: Is your OC's look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

not really? he's sort of loosely inspired by mall goth fashion, but that's more to do with color schemes than anything else. if i had to assign an actual aesthetic to specifically his way of dress, i guess it would be skater culture. which is funny, because he's not the skater of the team! eugene is! and eugene's aesthetics are based more on grunge and punk!

texture: Does your OC favor any specific kinds of cloth or textures? Is there anything they can't wear or don't like? What sort of fabrics do they prefer?

jailbird prefers his clothing to be baggier and looser. his costume is built for agility and speed, so he's willing to sacrifice comfort for function. his mental state is also in a pretty different place when it comes to civs vs costume.

wardrobe: How big is your character's wardrobe? Do they wear things threadbare, or can they afford new clothes often? Are they any good at mending and repairing their own clothing?

pretty big. i don't think jailbird buys new clothes very often, and he's really good at sewing and repairs. i think the only thing he probably has to get taken in or buy replacements of are his shoes. everything else he can usually fix on his own.

makeup: Does your OC wear makeup? How often? What kind? Why do they wear makeup, and do they like it?

yes, all the time. jailbird always has some level of black eyeliner and eyeshadow on. it's heavier in costume, blacking out the space around his eyes, but he wears it all the time. he just likes the way it looks.

favorite: Does your OC have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? What is it? What's the meaning behind it? Do they wear it all the time or do they wear it sparingly to keep it safe?

the magen david eugene gives him quickly becomes very important to him. aside from that, it's his fingerless gloves. never seen without them.

change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?

nope. not really, at least. in the epilogue, he's old enough to grow facial hair, and he starts wearing short sleeves. and grows his hair out some. but he's still the same old jailbird. he feels neutrally about it.

alternate: What would your OC's alternate universe look be? If they're a fantasy character, what's their modern look? If they're sci-fi, what's their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU!

i've mentioned before the concept of the vey in tremont, which are a type of superhero predestined to die a violent, brutal death usually as a result of their own powers or hubris. when initially writing the basic concepts of new blood, especially for the characters, i considered making jailbird vey, and then decided against it for a number of reasons (mostly because i felt that in jailbird's case, it would lean too heavily into capital punishment), but it's sort of stuck with me ever since. i think it would be a lot of the same, except as soon as jailbird realized he was vey, he would construct and detonate a nuclear bomb.

if i had to put him in any other genre, i think he'd be funny in high fantasy. specifically in any kind of dnd setting. oh man. he'd be the world's most annoying warlock.

while i was typing this, you sent me this message:

and i need it to be known that he would absolutely be like that chris fleming bit about how the stranger things cast are going to convince jimmy fallon to deface an orphanage.

[closetdbisexual]

tagged by @batemanofficial YAYY so awesome

last song: am i awake? by they might be giants (yayyy. ive been listening to them a Bunch lately their sound is so awesome..)

favorite color: blue and red likd 3D glassess . and green .and yellow. okay i like all colors but blue and green and yellow the most theyre my friends

currently watching: i dont knowwwww i havent watched a lot recently ...i guess we'll go with my tv shows ummm currently (meaning Not right this second but like . generally in the process of.) the x files :3 i love those stupid fbi agents sorry i love cop shows i know it sucks but cop and detective shows they really get to me..

last movie: rewatched shaun of the dead my best friend does anyone else like shaun of the dead . kind of an underground movie idk has anyone even heard of it. just kidding. i should rewatch hot fuzz next <- man who just said he loves cop shows

sweet, spicy, or savory?: savoryyy i dont like spicy things👎

relationship status: in a relationship i would tell you to go follow simon but he sucks and doesnt have tumblr . sighs. i miss you girl (boy)

current obsession: jaime i have never even seen lost i haveto say it here ive never watched it. sorry i know its iconic but i still havent. ummm i guess the x files again sighs those fbi agents are Getting to me...if we want to go video games im getting obsessed with animal crossing again ohhh you (general audience) should friend me on switch we can explore ..or whagever..

last thing i googled: had to google the word "logistical" because i did not remember what it meant👎👎

tagging: okay yayyy um @faesfaggotboyfriend @you2018 @buiiterrier (he wont do it i just wanted to tag him .) @oliredandgrey @roadkillrabiez and anyone else if they want idk..sorry i never know who to tag for these

[freepandahugs]

may i just say,

omg i was tagged in something shhsbskwiwjdkd 🥺🥺🥺🥺 thanks livi (and my drawing as a wallpaper too, omg, is it too early to cry??????????)

anyways, fun! let me start

share your wallpaper: my wallpaper is really basic but only because i use widgets to add more images and make it moee ✨aesthetic✨, atm my phone is in a pink and black aesthetic. and my whatsapp wallpaper is one of jungkook's photos with ck hahahha

last song you listened to: all of the girls you loved before - taylor swift

currently reading: from lukov with love - mariana zapata (literally started it yesterday because i needed a romance after i bawled my eyes out with "before the coffee gets cold" by toshikazu kawaguchi)

last film: eeeeeeem i don't remember????? i don't really watch a lot of movies???? probably j-hope in the box which is a documentary on one of the bts members, but that was like a month or two ago 💀💀💀

craving: affection and emotional stability ✨✨

what are you wearing right now? pijamas, i literally just woke up (its like 7:30 am over here)

how tall are you? 1.60 cm, idk how much that is in inches because i am not from the us hahahahahahah

piercings: yes, funny story actually. i got three done out of which only one survived without getting infected so yay!! (the last one i got done was fine for an entire year before it got infected like 💀)

tattoos: one on my shoulder and i want more but i need money first

last drink: water, probably the only thing i drink other than tea and alcohol

last show: currently watching haikyuu, the last show i finished was probably business proposal??? (i am also not an avid series watcher)

last thing you ate: noodle soup 🥰🥰

favorite color: yellow, but a very specific one, or green

current obsession: eee i am currently in a limbo between obsessions so i am waiting for what will come next, but my latest one was elain and azriel by association (she is everything, he's just ken) (also, that's a joke, i love azriel but honestly elain >>>>>)

unrelated obsession: I'm really into murder mystery books and like researching into murder cases. not too in depth because i am a scaredy cat but it is entertaining. but yeah, half my tbr is murder mystery books waiting to be read (my favorite one is a good girl's guide to murder, honestly a great book and ravi is just everything)

any pets: four dogs, i love them with my whole heart

do you have a crush on anyone? kind of??? there's this guy from uni who i think is like really cute and a lot of my friends say he's a really nice guy but i haven't ever really spoken to him a lot (my heart still beats like crazy whenever he's in my general vicinity but still would that count as a crush????) (also, he's totally my type like: tall, dark hair, wears glasses, kinda nerdy) (now i just need to grow some and actually talk to him hahahah)

favorite fictional character: idk about favorites because it varies but the ones that left a lasting impact on me would probably be elain, ravi and pip from agggtm, or percy and nico from pjo. i love all of them, don't make me choose

last place you travelled to: the capital city of my country which is like, soooo different from the (kind of) small town i live in. it was really fun!! plus i got to spend time with some cousins who are living there because of uni so!!!!

tags: i don't have any people i talk to on tumblr (really bad at starting convos, i freak out) so I'll tag people who i think are cool (other than @casuallivi because she already tagged me) @slytherhys (idk if someone already tagged you, sorry for that!! but i really like your writing!!) @elriell , @batboyazriel

now, do i tag this??? idk, i am very awkward as a person but this was fun!! thanks livi 🥰

Thank you @deathsweetblossoms for tagging me in these!!!! I always have so much fun with them <3 <3

share your wallpaper: my wallpaper is Elriel, which was commissioned a couple of years ago from Morgana. I was part of the commissioning group and I love it more than anything

last song you listened to: Mount Everest - Labrinth

currently reading: The Hunting of Adeline

last film: dunno

craving: inner peace. Also praise.

what are you wearing right now? A hoodie and leggings

how tall are you? 5'9

piercings: none

tattoos: why put bumper stickers on a Ferrari? Therefore none.

last drink: a Michelada

last show: Premier League Show recap.

Trying to watch The Citadel which is a silly show, but good for background noise

last thing you ate: fish and veg

favourite colour: pretty much any shade of blue

current obsession: psychotic dominant men with a penchant for extreme violence and obsessive tendencies towards their ladies

unrelated obsession: Darius Acrux and Tory Vega. I really love them, okay?

any pets: nope. I don't like animals. Blah, blah, I know...

I still don't like them

do you have a crush on anyone? psychotic dominant men with a penchant for extreme violence and obsessive tendencies towards their ladies

Otherwise, Jordan Pickford

favourite fictional character: Church

last place you travelled: I think London

tags: (with lots of pressure) @elainsweetcobalt @tswaney17 @casuallivi @fawnandshadows @impossiblescissorspeachpaper

[nationalharryleague]

Two for the Show

Summary: Jeff plans for Harry’s new opening act to be more than that. 

Genre: Famous Fake Dating! 

Word Count: 17.1k!

Pinterest Board

A/N: Hey babes!! This is something I’ve been working on since December now and I’m so fucking proud of it and how it turned out!!! It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written and I’m so so so excited to hear what everyone has to say!! Giant thank you’s go out to the incredible soph (@theharriediaries​) and Lu (@meetmymouth​) bc this never would have come to fruition without them and their help!! Please let me know what you think!! More of my writing can be found in my masterlist!! Happy reading y’all :)

***

Keeping appearances in the public eye is a delicate balance.

If Y/N was being honest with herself, everything Full Stop Management had ever suggested to her had worked, and very well. When they suggested her music took a more pop direction, they set her up with a team of fantastic producers and her music sales and popularity skyrocketed. And when they set up an appointment with a celebrity stylist to figure out her signature style, it worked; they turned her into the 1970’s inspired goddess she had always dreamed of being. Even the hours of media training that she had been put through worked, helping her learn how to bob and weave even the most intrusive of interview questions.

But this time, she thought they might be going too far.

“Jeff,” she began with a sigh and a doubtful shake of her head, “I don’t know about this one.”

“It’s just a few months before and during the tour,” explained the man sitting across from her at the long conference table. “You’ll be seen in public a few times to drum up publicity for the tour and your album, maybe do an interview or two together, and some light PDA.”

His expression was honest and earnest. In the time he had represented her, he had never done anything to her that didn’t help her succeed. It was not hard for her to believe that he just wanted what was best for her and her career.

But something kept holding her back.

“I just got my heart broken in the most public way,” she said softly, absentmindedly fiddling with the base of her ring finger where an engagement ring once sat. “Isn’t it a little too soon to be seen jumping back into a whirlwind romance?”

“I don’t think so. If anything, it will make James look even worse than he already does after what he did to you.” She had to admit the idea of a little revenge did perk her ears up a bit. “And it doesn’t hurt that Harry is so universally loved and known for being such a good guy.”

That was another reason she was skeptical of this entire plot. This was Harry Styles they were talking about; Harry fucking Styles. She had only met him once or twice while working out details for her to be the opening act for his upcoming tour, but she had been a big fan of his and idolized him since she was a teen. Just meeting him threw her inner 16 year old self for a loop, let alone trying to pretend she was in love with him.

In all honesty, it probably wouldn’t be too hard on her end once she got over being starstruck; she wasn’t so sure she still wasn’t kind of in love with him, or at least the version the public saw.

“Listen,” Jeff began again, his voice taking on a bluntness, “no one cares about the opening act. No one bought tickets to see you; they’re there to see Harry.” His words stung but she knew it was the truth. “But if they think you are a part of Harry’s life, they care about you too. And they will keep on caring about you after they leave the show.” Her apprehensiveness must have been clear on her face when he put on a gentle smile. “He’s a really nice person. I promise.”

“I know,” she breathed, a small pout finding its way to her lips. “Fine,” she conceded after a moment, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically to signal surrender. “I’m in.”

A triumphant grin spread across his face. “Thank you. I’ll go call Harry and tell him you’re down.” She watched as he got up from his chair and came towards her, pressing a brief and friendly kiss to the top of her head. “You won’t regret this, Y/N.”

“I better not, Azoff,” she chuckled while shaking her head slightly.

Soon she was alone in the conference room, basking in the light from the floor to ceiling windows that sat before her.

“What did I just get myself into?” she mumbled quietly to herself.

***

The answer to that question came two weeks later when she was sitting across a table from the Harry Styles at a small outdoor brunch spot in LA. Their meeting place was strategic, a small restaurant, not too flashy so it didn’t look like they were seeking attention, but outdoors where anyone could see. It was only a matter of time before he was recognized, and the sighting was almost guaranteed to be trending on Twitter only minutes later.

She couldn’t say that she wasn’t nervous. The inside of her mouth had been chewed raw and the bags under her eyes showed she had been having trouble sleeping in the nights leading up to their first appearance together. By the end of the day, she would most likely have countless articles written about her and possibly have millions of angry fangirls coming after her; even though their “relationship” wouldn’t be officially confirmed for a few weeks.

If all went to Jeff’s plan, she would become an A-lister overnight.

She stood in front of her closet for over an hour, trying on and taking off outfits before finally settling on her favorite pair of bright red corduroy flares and a crisp white textured halter top. She paired the outfit with a new pair of heeled leather boots. They were a flashy pair that were split down the middle, bright yellow on one side and white with yellow stars on the other, hoping Harry would appreciate the bold colors.

She meticulously did her makeup, sure to match her lipstick color exactly to the shade of her pants; and spent far too long in front of the mirror fussing with her hair, praying it would lay the way she wanted it to.

She knew that she was going to be photographed in some way shape or form, and with the fashion icon himself. She had to look good. He had been on the cover of Vogue for god’s sake.

When she finally arrived at the cafe, Harry sat quietly across from her. He looked casual, or as casual as Harry Styles gets. A yellow t-shirt, that was tight enough to look as if it was painted on, showed off his muscular chest and arms. His iconic tattoos illustrated his arms and she hoped he wouldn’t notice as she covertly tried to examine closely. He uncomfortably ran his palms down the legs of his high waisted denim flares that had been paired with his signature pearl necklace and ratty, but well loved, white vans.

And she couldn’t forget his rings. His signature gold ‘H’ and ‘S’ looked back at her as he gently grasped his flute filled to the brim with a mimosa, bringing it to his pink lips that were surrounded by the short stubble he had been wearing lately.

The pair sat in a slightly awkward silence, both seeming to down their mimosas quickly just because it was something to do with their hands and could occupy their lips so they didn’t have to talk.

To say she was panicking, wouldn’t be too much of an over exaggeration. She was sitting across from one of the world’s biggest stars, and as one of his biggest closeted fans. The things he could do for her career were astronomical and it was hard to ignore that, but she also had a hard time getting over the way his hair seemed to fall into perfect tousled curls and his dreamy green eyes.

She had been in love with him (or at least the idea of him) since she was 16. She couldn’t help it.

But the bottomless mimosas helped to break her anxiety, and apparently his as well, as they both began to feel a slight buzz.

“So how did Jeff end up talking you into this?” Harry eventually broke the silence, the alcohol lowering his naturally shy inhibitions just enough to kick off their conversation.

She let a playful eye roll take over her face before she began. “Oh Jeff,” she said jokingly, letting out a long sigh. “I was convinced somewhere in between ‘it’ll make your ex look bad’ and a stern ‘no one ever cares about the opening act,’” she chuckled, while sarcastically wagging her finger in the air, dramatically re-enacting his scolds.

He sucked in a breath through his teeth, letting out a dramatic ‘ouch.’ “He’s not always gentle, is he?” matching her chuckle.

“He knows where to hit you where it hurts,” she laughed, while nodding in agreement. “How did he convince you?”

“Coincidently, he also took a low blow involving my ex. I believe his words were ‘You wrote an entire album about her and haven’t dated anyone since and it makes you look kind of pathetic.’” He dramatically used air quotes and did his best impression of Jeff’s American accent. She couldn’t hold back the giggles that erupted from her.

“Oh my goodness,” she let out through slightly buzzed giggles, “you definitely win.”

From that point, their conversation began to flow more easily, easing her anxiety as she learned he was generally easy to talk to. He laughed at her jokes, and she laughed at his. He really did have the calming and disarming quality that people always said he had, like could melt down any walls and convince you to be honest with him, even if you didn’t really want to be. She was shocked to find that she wanted him to genuinely be a friend to her so badly. He was just so nice and such a good listener.

Their conversation took a turn when Harry’s super power of knowing when his picture was being taken kicked in. “Give me your hand,” he said to her, diverting from the pleasant conversation they had been having about their families. “Don’t look but there’s someone across the street taking photos of us.”

His instructions brought her back to the reality that they weren’t really friends and that all of this was for show.

She brought her hand up to meet his, strategically resting on the side of the table that faced the street, giving the camera the best view. The cool metal of his hand full of rings felt good against her skin that had been baking in the hot LA sun and he passed his thumb over her knuckles with faux affection.

She couldn’t help but feel a dishonest weight pulling on her heart. She knew everything was going to plan and this was all for the best, but it also felt slightly wrong. She played with her small heart shaped earring to distract herself from the sinking feeling.

“Harry,” she began, knowing the people across the street were out of ear shot. Her voice brought his attention from her hand back up to her eyes. “Does this feel wrong to you at all?”

“How so?”

“It just feels dishonest, like we’re lying to millions of people, our–well, mostly your fans.” She couldn’t help but correct herself.

His eyes softened at her words, like he was taking in the innocence she still held onto after only being in the industry for a short time, compared to his decade in the spotlight.

“I try not to think of it as lying,” he spoke slowly after a moment of thinking. He nodded along softly to punctuate his words. “When you think about all this as lying, it starts to weigh pretty heavy on you as a person. I try to be as honest as possible in my music and daily life, but that’s not always what people want to see. They want a show that will entertain them, and it is our job to give it to them.”

“I see,” she mused.

They sat together for another hour or so, allowing their small mimosa buzz to wear off enough for them to drive the short distances to their homes. The pair eventually found their way back to a comfortable conversation, but Harry’s comment about being in the public eye still weighed on her.

Suddenly, she wasn’t sure if all of this was worth it. Y/N was a master at dodging a question and turning the charm to 10 when it was needed, but she wasn’t a liar and she definitely wasn’t an actress. She hoped she (or Jeff) hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew with all of this.

Harry eventually walked her back to her car that was parked a few blocks away, and while she was sure he was doing it for the cameras, she didn’t doubt that he would have done it even if they weren’t there. He just seemed like that kind of guy to her; caring and trustworthy.

“Thank you for a very nice date, Harry,” she said, winking and chuckling along with the extra emphasis she put on the last word.

“My pleasure,” he smiled down at her. He moved along with her as she walked to the driver's side door, opening it for her like a perfect gentleman. The two stood close, his body hovering over her’s as they stood inside the open door. Her heart rose to her throat as he leaned down to her and pressed a gentle kiss to her burning cheek.

Y/N  looked back up at him with rosy cheeks and a tightlipped bashful smile. She watched as he walked backward carefully, taking her hand that had been locked with his until he was too far and let it fall back to her body.

She situated herself in her drivers seat and was ready to leave when she heard a knocking on the passenger side window that startled her. Harry had bent himself over and was motioning for her to roll the window down. When she did, he leaned himself in, an honest look in his eyes.

“Before you go,” he said gently. “A word of advice from someone who had been in the public eye for a long time,” he spoke with a tender yet serious tone, eyes locking with hers. “When you go home today, don’t go on social media. People are mean, and it’s just going to hurt.” She nodded along with his words and watched as he pinched his bottom lip. “And when you inevitably can’t resist, text me if you need to talk about it.”

***

They must have done a good job putting on their show because within an hour of her returning home to her apartment, they were all anyone was talking about. Their names were trending worldwide #1 on Twitter. Streams of Y/N’s debut album were up by 800%, and even Harry’s streams had taken a considerable jump. Y/N had gained 40,ooo new followers and views on every interview she had ever done were steadily rising.

All was going according to Jeff’s plan.

Harry’s words circled her brain for hours. “Don’t go on social media,” she heard him say over and over again as she paced her apartment, only stopping to look at the phone sitting on the kitchen counter every so often.

She had taken a shower, done her hair, tried to watch TV, cooked herself dinner, and even tried to sit down and write a song; it all got her nowhere fast. The unknown was eating at her inside.

Y/N broke when she heard the small ding signaling she had gotten a text message. She had all but sprinted to see who it was, reunited with the outside world through her touch screen. Unsurprisingly, it was from Jeff; the message sent to her and an unknown number she assumed to be Harry’s.

Good job, kiddos., was all it read but there was a photo attached to the message. Her heart stopped while she waited for the photo to load, cursing her slow wifi in the process. After a few breathless moments, the photo came through.

It was a screenshot from the website of one of the biggest entertainment magazines in the country. A picture of him kissing her cheek was the front page of the website.

Harry Styles and Y/N Y/L/N Rumored To Be Music’s New Power Couple Ahead of Tour

She was honestly speechless. This was huge.

She would like to say the sheer shock blurred her judgement, but the curiosity just got the better of her. Harry’s words repeated over and over again in her head, telling her not to, even as her finger connected with the icon of the little blue bird.

She was the most talked about topic in the entire world, her name hovering in bold letters on the trending page. She did everything she could to not click on her name, but her fingers did it all on her own.

The first few tweets were nice. Someone said they liked her style and that they looked cute together as a couple. Another said that they had always enjoyed her music and that they were happy for them.

But as she scrolled, it became harsher and just mean. People commented on her weight, said she couldn’t sing, and criticized her personality as seeming fake and forced. Her eyes were locked on the screen, unable to look away, as her heart began to break and few tears began to roll.

It took one final, and the most painful, tweet for her to consider deleting her account completely. She swiped out of the app fast, but the words were still burned into her brain.

Y/N is using Harry, just like she used James before he got rid of her and found someone better.

The words knocked the wind out of her, pouring salt on an open wound that had yet to heal.

She also had the little blue bird for that heartbreak as well. When she opened the app two months ago, the first thing she saw was pictures of her (former) fiance, James, with his tongue down some girl’s throat. At the time she had been devastated, her heart broken beyond repair.

It felt like no one else in the world could understand the way she was feeling. If she was in this position because of another person, they must get it too. The text to Harry was already sent before she had time to think it over.

I looked and I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry that I didn’t listen.

His response came only seconds later.

Don’t be sorry. It’s hard not to. Are you alright?

She had to think about his question, unsure if she knew the answer. Tears were still running down her face and she felt like she was a target the entire world had decided it was open season on. Logically, she knew these people never thought she would see these awful things, but it didn’t excuse the hurt she felt when she did.

I don’t know. I just don’t understand how people can be so cruel.

She felt like she was bothering him, even though he had offered to be there for her. He wasn’t her best friend, or a close confidant; he was her fake publicity boyfriend. He had real friends he wanted to talk to or maybe even a real girlfriend underwraps somewhere. Her body was wracked with guilt as she thought it over.

People are just mean on the internet, okay? They think they can say whatever they want without repercussions. I’m so sorry that you are being targeted because of me.

Before she got a chance to think through a proper response to him, her phone dinged with another text. It was from Jeff again.

Really good job, kiddos.

Y/N was confused. They hadn’t done anything else but be seen together today. Her sick sense of curiosity got her again before she opened Twitter again and looked up Harry’s name. He had tweeted for the first time in six months only a few moments ago.

@Harry_Styles: We treat people with kindness.

***

The next time she saw him was two days later at yet another public meet up Jeff had arranged for them. Unfortunately this time, she had become just as famous as Harry seemingly overnight, the flames of her new found fame growing even larger after he had sent that tweet.

While the fame had grown, the hate had calmed since his statement, which most had taken as an official declaration of their relationship. Now, that was not to Jeff’s plans.

She had to fight her way out of her apartment complex, wearing a pair of massive dark sunglasses with circular lenses and shielding her face with her hands the best she could. But she did have to admit that the electric orange fabric of her jumpsuit probably didn’t do much to help her blend in and avoid the attention of the paparazzi that had now found out where she lived.

Harry was sitting at the table by himself facing the back of the cafe when she arrived, two cups of coffee waiting before him to be drank together placed delicately on the table. He had his head down, buried in a book, before she startled him with a hug from behind. Her cheek connected with his warm neck where she buried her head into him and she took in his dizzying cologne.

She felt him jump beneath her as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing a dramatic and cheesy kiss to his cheek, feeling his light stubble prick her chapsticked lips. “My hero,” she joked, trying to bring at least a little humor to the man who had just about jumped out of his skin at her touch.

It felt like she was crossing a boundary, and she was pretty sure she was, but she just needed to thank him and a hug felt like the best way to do that while in a semi-crowded coffee shop. Also, playing up that they were madly in love didn’t hurt.

“Jesus Christ,” he breathed, a hand flying over his chest in surprise to feel his racing heartbeat. “You scared the shit out of me.” Once he settled for a moment, his arm moved across his chest to rest on her arm. His touch was gentle and soft, holding her there gently like he didn’t want her to release him from her grasp. She tried not to think about it too much as she slipped her arms off of him, making her way to the seat that was clearly meant for her across from him.

“I’m sorry that I scared you. A little jumpy today?” she teasingly questioned.

“Hey, watch it,” he playfully threatened. “I believe you called me your hero about thirty seconds ago.”

“I guess I did,” she quipped over the mug she was bringing to her lips. It was sweet but not too sweet, with cream but not too much, and still piping hot; just the way she liked it. “I don’t think it’s too far off,” she smiled before turning back to the coffee. “Good coffee,” she mused. “Just the way I like it.”

“Good. I texted Jeff for your order,” he informed her, the gesture being so thoughtful and sweet she could have melted into a puddle right there and then. “And I think ‘hero’ might be a bit much,” he tacked on.

“Don’t be humble, Harry.” While her voice was still light and held a jesting tone, she meant her words. “You made the entire internet leave me alone, for the most part,” she clarified as there were definitely some nasty messages still floating around Twitter, “in five words.”

“It was the least I could do,” he said while shaking his head slightly, seeming to deflect her words.

“You could have done absolutely nothing.” She reached across the table and grabbed his hand in hers like they had staged at the cafe a few days earlier; but this time, it was an honest gesture, not one for a role they were both meant to be playing. Her words were serious, punctuating each with a gentle nod of her head. “I mean it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” His eyes held the same truthfulness and honesty she hoped she was mirroring in her own. “I know all of this,” he paused and gestured between them with his free hand, “is for publicity, but I consider you a friend. It was hard to watch it all go down like that. You’re a good person and you didn’t deserve all that. I had to do something.”

There was a warmth that flooded her chest. He called me his friend, she thought to herself, fighting back a big toothy grin. She had been under the impression that all of this was just work for him, something he was doing just to drum up publicity, with no personal connections at all. But him calling her a friend meant so much to her. It meant she was not alone in all this terrifying and overwhelming attention.

“I’m glad you think of me as a friend,” she said, still holding back her smile. “You’re my friend too.” He matched her close-lipped smile that had fought its way onto her face at her words.

They sat in silence together for a few moments. Harry returned to his book and Y/N answered emails; but their hands stayed connected across the small table. This silence was very different from the silence on the day they first met. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence that sat on your tongue, begging you to break the quiet; it was peaceful and safe.

Their silence was broken when a young woman wearing a jittery smile and nervous eyes approached their table. Her voice squeaked out a mouse-like “Hi,” towards the both of them, bringing their eyes up to meet hers and instinctively breaking their hands away from each other.

“I’m so so sorry to be a bother,” she began, cheeks red and hot. “But I’m a really big fan of both of you and I would never forgive myself if I didn’t say hello.” She rambled excitedly, mostly looking at Harry, as she held her slightly shaky hands up to her chest.

“Hello,” Harry said with one of his million dollar smiles. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Emma,” she breathed.

“Well, it’s so nice to meet you Emma.” He spoke gently with her, clearly sensing her anxiety, extending his hand for her to shake. “Thank you for all of your support.”

Y/N watched closely as he spoke with her. He spoke to her like she was the only person in the room, giving her his whole undivided attention, and repeatedly thanking her as she flooded him with compliments about how his music and message of kindness meant so much to her. She was so entranced that she nearly didn’t hear her own name being said as the girl turned towards her.

“I love your music as well,” she grinned, clearly more comfortable after her short conversation with Harry. “And your jumpsuit is just incredible.” Her nervous giggle was contagious, Y/N releasing one as well at the compliment as her cheeks heated slightly. She was shocked she even knew any of her music, clearly being the less popular of the pair.  

“Thank you so much, Emma. It means a lot.”

Emma took a few quick selfies with the both of them (that would be everywhere within a few hours), said goodbye and went to leave the two, but not before she paid them one last compliment. “You two are really cute together. I’m rooting for you.”

Both of their cheeks warmed as they looked back at each other. They were quiet for a moment, unsure how to respond, before Harry turned his attention back to the girl with a coy smile. “I am too,” was all he said.

***

The next three weeks passed in a blur of tour rehearsals, fittings, and public meetings with Harry. And then all of a sudden, it was the night of the first show.

Y/N had never been so nervous in her entire life. She would be the first face seen by just over 19,000 people, tasked to warm up the crowd and prepare them for Harry, which was enough pressure. And then there was the chance that they all hated her guts.

She stood behind the curtain, listening to the loud and inpatient crowd as she paced back and forth. She white-knuckeld her guitar, trying to keep her violently shaking hands from being too visible to the crew around her. Her stomach swirled and her palms were clammy, constantly having to rub them on the pants of her icey blue jumpsuit. It fit her like a glove, the wide legged pants and slight shoulder pads, creating a perfect hourglass silhouette; the only thing she was confident in at the moment was how good she looked in it.

Her heart leapt out of her chest and she almost hit the ceiling when a small voice appeared over her shoulder, whispering “You’re going to do great,” in her ear. If her heart wasn’t about to give out before, it was now. She swung around to face him, almost hitting Harry with her guitar, letting out a small breath of relief when her eyes met his own. They always seemed to calm her down a bit.

“I’m kinda freaking out, H,” she anxiously babbled, using the nickname he had told her to call him. “This is the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, and they probably all hate me because they think I’m dating you, and I have to make sure I do a good job so they start listening to my music; and I just…” she trailed off for a second, uncomfortably scratching the back of her neck, “I just can’t let you down.”

His face softened at her words, seeming to take pity on her. “Y/N,” he began, resting his hands on her shoulders and looking so deep into her eyes she felt like he could probably see her soul. “We picked you to open because people love your music and the way that you perform. You just have to go out there and do what you do best: sing your heart out and put on a good show. It’s only 25 minutes. I know you can do it.”

Every word that left his lips was laced with honesty and encouragement; just enough for Y/N to relax her furrowed brow and give her lip a break from her constant chewing. “I can do it,” she softly repeated back to him, still not breaking contact with his striking green eyes.

A stage manager passed by them, running to some other important task, but not before tapping her shoulder. “You’re on in 30 seconds,” he spoke, just as she heard the roar of the crowd begin, signalling the dimming of the lights in the arena.

“Go kick some ass,” he winked, stepping backwards from her and releasing her from his grasp. “I’ll be watching.”

Walking on stage, she wasn’t met with ‘boo’s that had plagued her nightmares, or mean looks from the audience, or rotten tomatoes thrown from the crowd.

They were screaming in excitement, screaming for her.

From the second she started playing, the crowd had her back; the ones that knew the words to her songs sang them along with her, and the ones that didn’t, happily danced to her voice. Before long, the smile she had forced onto her face was genuine, and her set passed by with ease. When her 25 minutes were up, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get off the stage.

She took her final bow as the crowd roared, running off of the stage into the wings, looking for one person in particular. And when she found him, she threw herself into Harry’s open and waiting arms. “I told you that you were going to do great!” He spoke excitedly into her ear and he held her close to his body, his arms wrapped around her waist tight.

She liked the way it felt to be in his arms.

Pulling away from him, she saw the massive grin that he wore for her, noting how adorable his dimples were and how the excited look in his eyes made him look like a little kid. But there was more to his face than excitement, he looked proud.

“They were so nice to me, and they knew my songs, and they were screaming so loud for me, and it just went so well. I can’t believe it!” Her previous anxious chatter had become an exhilarated rambling and she felt on top of the world.

“I can,” he grinned, looking down at his watch quickly. “I have to go get changed.” If she wasn’t so amped up, she might have noticed the disappointment that flashed over his features. “Promise me you’ll watch the show?”

“Pinky swear?” She stuck up her little finger in the air.

“Pinky swear.” He kept their pinkies locked for a moment too long, then released her hand and ran backstage to get dressed.

She kept her promise and watched with excitement as the building shook when Harry took the stage.

She had never heard something quite so loud, sure her ears would be ringing when she snuggled into her bunk on the tour bus that night. Watching him perform was mesmerizing; he knew how to work a stage in every way and make every person in the arena feel like he was singing just for them. He was larger than life while performing and his little dances and mannerisms only got more pronounced the more comfortable he got on stage. He messed with Mitch, who she had only met a few hours ago (he was very nice), and constantly praised Sarah on the drums behind him, while he looked over to Adam and sent him smiles often.

Everyone in the building came for a show, and boy, did he give them one. It was amazing to watch. There was a reason she was a fan.

Bouncing off the stage, full of adrenaline and in a post-show high, he came to find her. It wasn’t hard, as she had never left her spot on the side of the stage, unable to rip her eyes away from the man before her.

“Oh my god, Harry! That was incredible!” she said with delighted amazement.

“I’m glad you liked it.” He was smiling down at her with a big toothy grin, a hand running through his sweaty hair and pushing it off his forehead. “They only get better from here.”

***

He was telling the truth. The shows only got crazier and more exciting as the tour went on, and so did their “relationship.”

About five shows in, Jeff had Harry given her his “H” ring to start wearing. Harry didn’t seem too phased by it all even though she thought it might be too much, saying “it’s like a friendship bracelet.” But it was too big for her fingers, not because she had small hands, but because Harry’s were absolutely massive. She wore it on a chain around her neck from then on and made sure to always be seen playing with it.

Fans took notice and loved it.

A little after that, Jeff sent them off to get matching manicures. Both had a melting rainbow of oranges, pinks, and browns on their fingertips, which looked amazing in the paparazzi photos of them walking around with their fingers intertwined.

The fans loved that too.

But when she “accidentally” posted a photo of Harry on her story, the entire world lost it’s shit. In the photo, he laid sprawled across a bed in only a white hotel robe that was creeping dangerously high up his thigh. He looked sleepy and slightly sweaty, in a post-fuck haze, and clothes that looked very similar to ones she had been seen wearing in public only days before were strewn across the floor. The caption read “I love getting to love you.”

The photo had strategically only been up for about 30 seconds, but by the time it was deleted thousands of people had seen it and screenshots had been taken. They quickly circulated the internet, creating a bit of scandal. But more than anything, people began to love the two of them together even more. Harry looked genuinely happy in the photo, and for most of his fans, that was all that mattered.  

They were creating a fairytale love story for an audience, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t enjoying her role. She quite liked being his “girlfriend.”

Harry and Y/N had a way of clicking as they grew closer–quite literally as they were crammed together on a tour bus most of the time. They seemed to be able to finish each other’s sentences and always beat the other to the punchline of a joke. The pair had begun to pick up on the other’s mannerisms and habits; Y/N always teasing that Harry was going to rub his nose off one day if he kept rubbing it while he was thinking and Harry always knowing when she got enough sleep by whether or not she had put on eyeliner that morning. They swapped playlists back and forth in their bunks as they tried to doze off and always grabbed a cup of coffee for whoever had decided to sleep in the next day, now knowing the other’s order by heart.

There was only one thing she didn’t know about him that she longed to discover: what his lips felt like against her own. She could never think too hard about it though, or she may just explode.

He had become a calming presence and was currently helping her keep her cool, even though she knew the pair of interviewers across the table were getting ready to grill the pair for every detail they could get. His hand had settled on top of her knee to quell it’s nervous bouncing, but remained after she had stopped, even though no one could see his touch under the table. She watched as his thumb ran itself back and forth along the leg of her flashy orange and yellow patterned overalls and she had a hard time pulling her gaze away when the radio host across the large table began to speak.

“So Harry,” the bald man began. “Fine Line has been one of the biggest albums of the year and I just have to say I love it. It’s truly incredible.” She listened as the man continued on to sing Harry’s praises, going on to list his grammy nominations, sold out world tour, and other accolades. She couldn’t help but smile as she watched his cheeks tinge pink with the praise. She knew anyone watching would pick up on her adoring look and people fawn over it, but she knew her gaze was nothing but truthful.

“Thank you very much,” he said shyly, shaking his head slightly as he spoke into the microphone suspended in front of his face. “You’re too kind.”

“Stop being humble,” she teased him, playfully tapping him on the arm. “All of his music is fantastic,” she said turning her attention back to the man across from them, “especially Fine Line.”

“And there’s Y/N, being the supportive girlfriend,” the man chuckled.

“I support him in everything he does,” she smiled back, not having to embellish the truth at all. “He is an amazing talent and I think Fine Line shows that.”

It wasn’t hard for her to gush about him. It was actually quite easy. She absolutely adored him, as an artist, a friend, and the focus of her affection. She felt an equal warmth in her cheeks as she watched his get even pinker with her compliments.

“That’s actually something we wanted to ask you about,” the blonde woman sitting next to him piped up, a mischievous glint in her eyes that sent nervous butterflies flying around Y/N’s stomach. “One of the songs on Fine Line, Cherry to be specific, actually features the voice of Harry’s ex, Camille. How does that make you feel as his new girl?”

Y/N did her best not to gag at the woman’s question, gritting her teeth as she plastered on a polite smile. “Well, I think Cherry is a really great song and her voice at the end adds a lot,” she spoke as smoothly as she could, refusing to let on that the question rattled her. Harry’s light squeeze on her knee signalled to her that she had answered the question well.

“It’s also been three years since the song was written,” Harry cut in. “Things are obviously a lot different now.” He connected their eyes for a second while he was leaning back into his seat, sending her a short smile, but she knew him well enough to know it was genuine.

“Oh, definitely,” the woman eagerly agreed. “You’re in a great new relationship with a beautiful girl on your arm.”

“Y/N,” he emphasized her name as the woman had referred to her as a possession of his for a second time, “and I are very happy. Thank you.” To an onlooker, he was calm. To her, he was visibly uncomfortable by her words.

Y/N began to notice a clear pattern as the interview went on. Harry was asked exclusively about his music and the tour, while Y/N only became relevant to their interviewers when they wanted to mention their relationship.

When the man asked Y/N if she felt uncomfortable playing to Harry’s mainly female fanbase every night that are “so obviously jealous of her,” something snapped inside of her, sending all her hours of media training out the window. “I’m not uncomfortable at all,” she said curtly. “His music is great and he puts on an awesome show. I don’t think the audience’s gender really has anything to do with the music.” She watched the man’s face fall before she decided to go on. “And I would like to think that at least a few of them are there for me too. You do know I make music too, right?”

An indignant smirk found its way to her lips as the man stammered out, “yes, of course.”

“Okay. I was just wondering since you have only asked me questions about our relationship since we got here.”

She knew Jeff wouldn’t be happy, but at the moment, she couldn’t care less. They may not have really been dating, but the interviewers didn’t know that. All of their dismissal of her and her career was 100% real.

She had been so worked up that she didn’t even realize Harry’s hand had left her knee until it found its way to rest on her back. She leaned into his touch as he rubbed her back softly while she crossed her arms in front of her.

The interviewers looked at the two of them across the table, jaws both lying on the floor. It was quiet until Harry nonchalantly spoke. “She has a point.”

The last few minutes of the interview passed in an awkward blur that felt suffocating. She felt like she could finally take in a deep breath once they were in the back of a massive SUV being driven away from the studio.

“Jeff is going to have my head,” she mumbled under her breath, nose stuck into her phone as she scrolled Twitter to see what people were saying about her outburst. But before she could read any opinions, Harry's tattooed arm blocked her view as he gently pushed her phone down onto her lap.

“Look at me,” he murmured, beckoning her attention to the other side of the back seat. When she connected her eyes with his, his usual calming aura took over her, softening the stressed crease between her brows. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Harry, I just blew my career up into smoke because I couldn’t deal with a rude interviewer,” she huffed at him.

“No,” he disagreed softly, moving the hand that rested on her arms to interlock his fingers with one of hers. “You stuck up for yourself to people who were ignoring your work and whittling you down to your relationship.”

“But it was rude.”

“It was necessary.”

The car ride to the venue for that night’s concert was quiet, but Harry never let go of her hand, brushing his thumb over her knuckles in a comforting touch. She wasn’t sure if she ever wanted him to let go.

***

It was the early hours of the morning by the time the pair returned to their tour bus and went to crawl into their bunks.

Her performance had gone well and Harry was mesmerizing (as always). He was truly hypnotizing to watch while he performed and she hadn’t missed watching him yet, even as they drew close to the end of the tour. It was the best part of her day and she would miss it dearly after the last show.

She was almost asleep, curtain drawn and cuddled under a pile of blankets, when her cell began to ring. Her heart sank, knowing only one person who would know when she had a sliver of free time (even though it’s debatable if sleeping counts as free time). She was going to get scolded like she was a little kid in the principal's office and she knew it.

“Hi Jeff,” she answered with a sigh as she pulled the curtain back and slid from the bunk, the cold air of the tour bus nipping at her legs.

Her gaze was met by a snuggled up Harry wearing a concerned face across from her in his own bed. He never closed the curtain, not even when she asked politely to muffle his snores, always saying something about how it made him claustrophobic. He sent her a tired smile and mouthed “good luck,” extending a hand for a fist bump as she passed. Knocking their knuckles together put a brief smile on her face before she buckled in for the chewing out she was about to get.

Harry watched her intently as she paced up and down the front of the tour bus as she spoke to Jeff, too far away for him to listen in. Her face gradually turned from anxious, to surprised, to something that would have probably been happiness if she wasn’t so tired.

“Alright, thank you for everything.” She spoke softly when she finally returned to be within earshot for him. “Goodnight Jeff.”

“So?” he murmured groggily at her, brows raised in question at her.

“People loved it,” she said shocked, like she didn’t fully believe it herself. “They think I’m some kind of badass for shutting down a sexist. Which is, like, a lot,” she spoke with a disbelieving chuckle, unable to find the right words in her groggy state. “I don’t really know what to make of it.”

Harry seemed to spring up from his spot in his bed, smacking his head on the top of the bunk in the process, prompting them both to dissolve into a puddle of giggles.

“Don’t get too excited for me,” she laughed. “I cannot be the reason that you hurt yourself and have to cancel a show.”

“I was just too excited to say ‘I told you so,’” he smirked, now rubbing the side of his head through his curls.

“Cocky bastard,” she sarcastically murmured under her breath while dramatically rolling her eyes.

She watched with confusion as Harry left his bed, and after a short and frantic search for his pajama pants so he wouldn’t “offend her eyes,” he moved towards the front of the bus. Her eyes trailed him as he bent down to the small mini fridge and pulled out two beers.

“We have to celebrate.”

It was 2 AM and she had been so ready for bed after a long day. But she knew she could never say no to him. She thanked god that they had a day off tomorrow.

After retrieving her massive and lovingly worn Grateful Dead sweatshirt to protect her from the chilly air, she nearly ran to the front of the bus. His painted pink fingers moved with skill as he popped the bottle caps off with one of his rings, handing it to her and gently nudging his bottle against hers.

“Cheers,” he murmured softly as he looked down at her with a kindhearted smile.

“Cheers,” she seemed to whisper back to him, a flutter in her stomach reminding her how badly she wanted to reach out and connect her lips to his. Instead she slid into the small booth across from him, taking a long sip from the bottle as she watched him do the same.

“I want you to know that I was really proud of you today,” he said as he put his beer down on the table. “Rude interviewers are never easy and you handled it like a champ.”

“Thank you, H,” she nodded, suddenly bashful and unable to make eye contact with him. Her cheeks burned hot as she put all her focus into tracing the rim of the bottle with her finger tip.

“Hey,” he called for her attention and her eyes snapped up to meet his. “I mean it, Y/N.”

“I know you do,” she gently nodded at him. “I’m just really happy they didn’t ask about my ex,” she chuckled as she took another sip. “That would have gone very poorly.”

“Oh yeah, I was a little annoyed they brought up my ex but not yours,” he teased. “Not fair if you ask me.”

“Well, then I’m glad no one asked you.”

“Can I ask you?”

“What?”

“About your ex.”

She should have been prepared to talk about it with Harry at some point. Half of this plan had been devised to get back at James anyway. She should be able to talk about it by now, especially with someone she had grown so close to.

“I guess so,” she shrugged, trying to seem casual like the mere mention of him didn’t still hurt her heart a little bit. “What do you want to know?”

“As much as you’re willing to tell me.”

He looked soft like this, eyes slightly sleepy with a tenderness in them as he looked back at her. His hair was unruly and puffy and he was wrapped in the powder blue blanket that lived on the tour bus’ couch. She would have told him anything that he ever wanted to hear if he kept looking like this.

With a deep breath, she began to recount everything that went down.

“I met James while I was still working as a waitress. I recognized him from his movies and started a conversation, and then–to my surprise–he asked me out on a date. I had been in LA for three weeks and this insanely famous actor is asking me to go out with him, so I obviously said yes.” She paused to take a swig of her beer, before mumbling under her breath, “I should have said ‘fuck no’ to that.”

A smile ghosted over her lips as she listened to Harry’s laugh across the table. She swore that laugh could cure cancer.

“But I didn’t,” she continued. “He introduced me to the right people and helped me make the right connections in the industry, which I guess made me feel indebted to him. Does that make sense?”

“Of course,” Harry nodded, eyebrows furrowed and listening intently.

“I should have broken up with him after I signed with Jeff and the label, however awful that sounds. But he just always knew the right things to say to make me feel special and like I was the most important person in the world. Even after I found out he was talking to other girls, he was somehow able to talk himself out of it.” She shook her head as she recalled it. “You wanna hear something fucked up?”

“Always,” he said with a gentle smirk.

“He proposed to me using lines from a romcom he was working on.”

Harry nearly spit out his drink. “Holy shit, you’re kidding!”

“I wish. I didn’t find out until I went with him to the premier a few months later and the proposal scene sounded surprisingly familiar.”

“What a dirtbag.”

“I know, right?” she laughed. “Then a few weeks after that, he got papped with his tongue down another girl’s throat. That finally knocked some sense into me and I ran for the hills.”

“Fuck,” he sighed as he finished his beer. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she breathed. “I don’t even feel hurt by him anymore, ya know? I just feel angry at myself for trusting him.”

“I understand but it’s not your fault he was a piece of shit,” he said as he rose from his seat and traveled to the mini fridge once again. “Another?” he asked, holding the bottle up about his head.

“Fuck it,” she shrugged. “Sure.”

She watched him skillfully pop off the tops again using just his rings, making a mental note to make him teach her how he did that, before he flopped back down in his seat.  

“At the risk of sounding like a Facebook mom, ‘you grow through what you go through,’” she chuckled, taking another long sip as she finished her first. He matched her high pitched giggle across the table and she nearly drooled beer down her front from smiling so wide.

“Amen, sister,” he agreed, raising his beer in the air.

“Oh, that was awful.” She shook her head as she descended into giggles. “Please never say that again.”

“Noted.”

“Anyway,” she began again after another sip of her drink, “I was well prepared to get my heartbroken by untrustworthy men after you, Styles.”

“I’m offended–tell me more,” he spoke quickly, his signature narcissistic smirk settling onto his features.

“I need you to know that Zayn leaving was my first real heartbreak.”

“Were the rest of us chopped liver?”

“You weren’t Zayn, I can tell you that.”

“Ouch!” He let out a loud belly laugh.

“Put yourself in my shoes for a minute, H. So first, the hottest-”

“Rude-”

“-I’m speaking. So the hottest one leaves, and then the rest of you are all like ‘we’ll be back in 18 months,’” she mocked him in a high pitched impersonation with a wave, “and then 6 months later you all mysteriously have solo careers.”

“I do not see you complaining about my solo career now, ya fame leetch.” He spoke with such humor and charisma, she couldn’t have even wished to be offended by his joke.

“Absolutely not, sir,” she said sternly, giving him a dramatic salute. “Deepest apologies from the fame leetch.” The two collapsed into giggles, laughing until their sides began to ache.

“Wait, I have a question for mega superstar Mr. Harry Styles of former One Direction fame,” she announced.

“I believe that’s me,” he bowed his head and raised his hand into the hair. “Shoot.”

She barely could get the question out, laughing too hard at her own joke. “Is Taylor Swift a good kisser?”

“Oh god,” he exasperatedly threw his hands in the air, chuckling while rolling his eyes dramatically before grinning wide as he thought over his answer. “I don’t kiss and tell,” he finally smirked.

“Wait, I have another!”

“Watch it, smart ass.”

“You think I’m smart?” she teased as she feigned flattery. “Have you ever heard of a song called ‘English Love Affair?’” He narrowed his eyes at her, a knowing smirk crossing his lips as he shook his head at her. “Also, when do I get to meet Gemma?”

“I’ll consider it when you stop bringing up her sex life, perv.”

“We’ve been dating for a few months now,” she teased as she continued to prod, emboldened by the liquid courage running through her veins as she was now half way through her next beer. “I think I should be allowed to meet the family soon. They seem delightful.”

“They would love how you have decided to rip into me like this,” he said with a cheeky smile, dimples on full display.

“Rockstars have to get knocked down a peg every once in a while.” She sarcastically shrugged. “Consider it a favor.”

She couldn’t help but think about how right this felt. Their back and forth flowed so smoothly, the banter falling from their lips without effort. Their laughter joined together in a delightful melody and she imagined they could go on this way all night.

Spending any amount of time with him made her so fucking happy; and time spent teasing each other over beers caused her to nearly explode with joy. How much she was enjoying herself was too hard to put into words.

He was safe and he was kind and he made her laugh no matter how bad his jokes were.

He was her best friend.

And for the first time, she was willing to admit that she was in love with him.

“Harry,” she hummed softly as their laughter died down to a comfortable silence. “Thank you for everything. You’ve changed my life forever and I can never repay you.”

“Just remember me when you get famous.”

“Oh shut up, I’m being serious,” she playfully scolded before letting her tone drop back into honesty. “You’re a very good person and I’m eternally grateful for you letting me be your opening act and then agreeing to this whole relationship charade.”

“I didn’t ‘let’ you be anything, Y/N. I picked you myself.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I listened to your album when it came out and fell in love with it,” he shrugged, his casual tone contradicting the surprised raise of her pulse. “When I found out Jeff also managed you, I knew I had to have you on the tour.”

Y/N was honestly stunned. She had always assumed that the tour was Jeff’s doing, a careful arrangement pairing Full Stop’s new up-and-comer with their most famous and established talent. Being offered the tour had been the biggest opportunity and honor she had ever been presented with; but she had never considered Harry himself being behind it.

“Oh,” was all she could manage to get out.

It was now his turn to be confused. “What’s so surprising about that?” he asked, reading the shock on her face like she was an open book.

“I just,” she stammered, trying to find the words in her slightly hazy state. “I never would have thought you knew who I was or listened to my music.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” she trailed off. “You’re you, and I’m just... me, I guess.”

He didn’t respond right away, just looking at her intently and slightly amused, sea glass eyes boring into her with a pink lip held between his teeth.

He scanned her frame, from the way her hair sat messily on top of her head and the way the massive sweatshirt swallowed her body enough to where she had pulled her knees up to her chest underneath it. Her shoulders were slumped slightly, making her appear smaller as she held her legs close to her torso and her eyebrows were knitted together in worry, slightly nervous under his intense gaze.

She downed the rest of her beer in an attempt to forget his intense attention. It didn’t work.

“You really don’t know how incredible you are, do you?” he finally asked, the corner of his lips twitching into a small smile.

She felt her whole body burn with his compliment, wanting to shrink into herself and disappear completely from his view. She finally shook her head slightly in an attempt to deflect his words, breathing his name under her breath as if to scold him for being too kind.

“You are,” he insisted, ignoring her objection. “You’re so talented and your music deserves all the attention that it gets. I am honored that I get to play a part in helping expose the world to you and what you have to offer.”

“Thank you.” Her words came out as a whisper.

“You’re welcome, love.”

His pet name made her stomach turn in a nervous excitement and a wide grin involuntarily came to her lips.

“I like it when I make you smile like that.” His words only made her beam further. “You look very pretty when you smile.”

“Stop it,” she said softly, cheeks burning hot and having a hard time making eye contact with him.

“Stop what?” He feigned innocence as he lightly teased her, smirk still prominent on his features.

“Are you flirting with me, Styles?”

“Just practicing.”

His words rang through her mind long after they had left the table and crawled back into their bunks for the night. She wished she could see inside his head to understand whatever thoughts were running around his brain.

But for now she could just peak at him through the gap she had purposely left in her curtain, wondering if she ever popped into his dreams as he slept.

He was always in hers.

***

There was a sadness mixed in with her usually thrilled mood as she took the stage for the last show of the tour. While there was an element of relief as she looked forward to some well needed rest, the adrenaline and joy of being in front of a crowd was something that she would miss dearly. She had grown into a real performer over the last two months as they zig-zagged across the US and this period of time would have a special place in her heart long after it had ended.

But there was another reason why she was so sad to see this chapter come to an end. As far as she knew, a staged breakup was not far away and the thought of being without Harry was heartbreaking. He had become her person and soon their feux falling out would be on the front page of every magazine. She wanted nothing more in the world than for their relationship to be real, but it would be forced to end before it had even truely started.

She got choked up as she sang her final song that night, letting a few tears escape as she took in the thousands of people singing her lyrics back to her, flashlights swaying in the air to the beat of the music. Taking a move from Harry’s own playbook, she took her mic and directed it to the crowd to sing as she cried. The vibrations of the drums and bass behind her nestled it’s way into her bones and the chorus of singing voices in the crowd surrounded her in a bittersweet melody.

The past two months she had been on top of the world, and as soon as this song finished, it was the beginning of the end.

She took her final bow, watching as the small tears fell forward onto the dusty stage below her. She waved and blew kisses to the crowd, then nearly ran off the stage looking for the only person she wanted to see.

Harry was right where he always was, just out of view behind the curtain, holding his arms out for her to fall into.

“Awe, babe,” he hummed sympathetically when she settled her head onto his chest, surely ruining his crisp white t-shirt with her now wet makeup. “It’s okay. Final shows are always tough.” He rubbed her back gently, in a soothing rhythm.

He smelled so good. He smelled like home.

She tilted her head up to connect her glassy eyes with his. “I just don’t want this all to end.” She knew she wasn’t just talking about the tour.

“Neither do I,” he said as his lips curved into a devilish smirk that sent her heart into palpitations. “That’s why I have one last surprise for you.”

“Oh, Harry,” she sighed while wiping the remaining tears off her cheeks. “What have you done?”

“You said you liked surprises!” he defended.

“Not surprises in front of 20,000 people!”

“I promise you’re going to love this one, okay?” His voice was softer now, encouraging and supportive. “You’re going to come out and sing an extra song with me during my set,” he revealed.

“Sing what?”

“That’s the surprise.”

“Do I even know the words?”

“You definitely know the words,” he chuckled.

“I just finished sobbing. I can’t go out there like this.”

“You can fix your makeup. I believe in you.”

“What am I going to wear?” she asked, grasping at straws at this point, doing anything she could to get out of this.

“I had Lambert put something together for you.”

“Of course you did.”

She peppered him with a few more questions, but he had a smooth and charming answer to every single one. He had thought every detail out, and as always, she couldn’t say no to him.

“Fine,” she finally exasperatedly agreed, immediately met with his excited and dimpled smile that she had fallen head over heels for.

“Perfect,” he breathed. “I have to go get ready and so do you. I already put everything you need in your dressing room, okay?” She nodded, still biting her lip anxiously. He held her by her shoulders, lowering his head to match their eye level as he leaned in close, before he spoke. “You’re going to have fun. I promise.”

“Pinky swear?”

“Pinky swear.”

Seconds after they locked their little fingers together, he pressed a quick and protective kiss to her forehead that set her whole body ablaze before running off in the direction of his dressing room. She remained stunned and frozen in her spot for a few moments trying to process what it felt like to have his lips on her for the first time since that very first day they had met.

There was no audience to perform it for or an act to keep up behind the curtain. He kissed her because he wanted to.

She was finally snapped out of her daze when a stagehand bumped into her by accident, prompting her to begin the short walk back to her dressing room. But the ghost of his lips remained on her forehead, an incessant tingle placed there by his touch.

The dress she found waiting for her was one of the most beautiful gowns she had ever set her eyes on. Made of a light purple chiffon, the wrap dress’ long sleeves and floor length skirt flowed freely. A belt cinched the wispy fabric close to her waist and a deep-v exposed her neck and chest. But the most dazzling part of the dress were the red sequined hearts that dotted the fabric and reflected the light of the dressing room like a million little mirrors.

Slipping into it, the light fabric was soft against her skin, opaque enough but still slightly sheer to let light through and show off her legs and the bright red shiny pumps Lambert had left for her. She felt the most beautiful she had ever felt in this dress, boosting her confidence and quelling her nerves about whatever the hell Harry was planning.

“One minute to curtain,” was announced in an ominous voice over the arena’s backstage speakers as she finished fixing her makeup and she all but ran to make it back to the stage in time. She only had one more chance to watch him perform and she refused to miss a second of it.

Harry dazzled as the lights focused in on him, his deep blue and fully sequined suit reflecting the light and turning him into a human disco ball. He stood close to the edge of the stage as the beginning notes of the first song began being played by the band, but he made no move towards his mic stand to sing. His eyes were closed and his arms were outstretched to the audience, taking in every scream, every tear, and the thunderous shake of the building; but also giving himself to them.

Then the show began. As usual, he was electric, but tonight was like he had turned himself up to eleven. Every note he sang was full of his heart and every dance move was done with his entire body, even his bad jokes seemed funnier tonight.

She was so mesmerized she almost forgot about his ‘surprise.’ Almost.

“Since tonight is unfortunately our last show,” he pouted. “I thought I would do something special,” he spoke to the crowd as they roared, but quickly connected his eyes with her’s in the wings. By the smirk plastered on his face, she knew she was in for it.

“I recently found out that someone very close to me was a very big fan of…” he trailed off as he dramatically pretended to search for the right words, “my previous work.” He finished with a smirk and his words prompted the loudest reaction since he had been on stage.

“Now, I told her that she would be coming on stage to join me tonight, but I didn’t exactly tell her what we would be singing and I haven’t performed this song in a very long time, so cut us some slack if we mess up. This is very unrehearsed.” He kept sneaking glances back to her, as her eyes grew wider at the stunt he was currently pulling. “But I know for a fact that she knows all the words. I listen to her sing them in the shower quite often.” He wore a cheeky dimpled grin as he looked back at her once again.

The building was shaking due to the suspense he was creating, and looking down at her hands, she realized she was to. She gripped hard onto the mic a stagehand had just shoved at her, pleading with her hands to stop their tremors.

“Now, I would love it if you could all give another warm welcome to one of my favorite people on the planet, Y/N Y/L/N!” He turned his body to her for a final time, extending his hand out for her to take. Her legs felt like jello as she walked out into the bright lights towards him, interlocking her fingers with his as a way to keep her on her feet.

The audience’s screams were deafening at seeing the two of them together and she thanked god she had her earpieces in to protect her ear drums or they would have surely burst. She could only imagine the articles that would be written about this and the thousands of tweets that were probably already being sent.

“I’m gonna kick your ass,” she mouthed at him threateningly, but she couldn’t even get through the sentence before his dazzling smile began to quell her anxiety.

“The look on your face is 100% worth getting my ass kicked,” he answered smoothly before turning his attention back to the audience. “Everyone, sing along if you know the words,” he commanded their attention. “This is Ready to Run.”

Her jaw dropped and the crowd roared as the band behind her began to play the first few chords of the song she loved and knew so well. She had admitted it a few days ago that it was one of her favorites of his ‘previous work,’ but apparently he already knew that from the few showers she had taken on the tour bus.

“There’s a lightning in your eyes I can’t deny,” he began by himself, her brain still too shocked to jump in yet. He sang the first few lines to her with a giant grin plastered on his face, hand still holding tight to hers. His eyes had a playful glint in them that seemed to say ‘just have fun.’

“There’s a devil in your smile, it’s chasing me,” she finally began to sing, Harry fading his voice out so she could take the next few lines by herself as he admired her.

He did have a devilish smile, but it was one she loved with her entire heart. As she began to sing, she felt her muscles begin to relax into the song she had sung to herself so many times before, letting her body begin to bounce to the growing rhythm as her dress flowed around her.

The stage vibrated as Sarah beat her drums to introduce the chorus. “This time I’m ready to run, escape from the city and follow the sun,” the pair sang together, eyes still locked as their voices combined into the most perfect tune. “Cause I wanna be yours, don’t you wanna be mine?” they continued the lyrics. She felt herself meaning the words leaving her mouth more and more as they went on. She did want to be his, she couldn’t deny that. “I don’t wanna get lost in the dark of the night.”

Her apprehensiveness eased further as the music picked up and the hook went on, finally allowing herself to have a bit of fun. “Wherever you are is the place I belong,” they insisted towards each other, leaning in close before Harry grabbed her hand to dramatically spin her, the beautiful shining fabric of her dress splaying out around her. The next line was mumbled through giggles by both of them, but their laughter only added to the perfect moment they were having.

They danced across the stage together like there weren’t 20,ooo pairs of eyes watching them, both singing their hearts out to each other. It began to feel like they weren’t even there. It was just Y/N and Harry, serenading each other to one of her favorite songs.

“There’s a future in my eyes I can’t foresee,” she sang to him to start the second verse.

“Unless, of course, I stay on course and keep you next to me.” Harry grabbed her by her waist and pulled her into his side as he sang the words, prompting more giggles from her. She loved the way he smiled so wide as he sang, never breaking his eye contact with her and emitting pure joy. His eyes looked honest as he sang, like he meant every word just as much as she did.

The pair made their way through the rest of the verse and second chorus, flawlessly moving around the stage like they owned it. Y/N selfishly decided to let him have the bridge all to himself, needing to hear the way his beautiful voice hit the high notes. “This time I’m ready to run,” he sang passionately, executing the downward moving riff perfectly. “I’d give everything that I got for your love,” he pointed across the stage towards her, beckoning her back close to him. She quickly skipped to him at his request.

Like she had blinked, the song was already nearing its end.

“Cause I wanna be free and I wanna be young, I’ll never look back now I’m ready to run,” they belted the last lines out to each other. The band fell quiet on their last chord and the crowd exploded, but their noise fell on deaf ears as the pair stood so close their heaving chests were almost pressed up against each other. His eyes stared down into hers and she watched as his eyes flickered quickly down to her lips.

The world ceased to exist when he pressed his mouth to hers, even if it only lasted a second. It was nothing more than a peck, but it was everything to her. Her body igniting with heat and eyes full of shock, she looked back at him in simultaneous confusion and adoration, before realizing they had been staring at each other for too long. She needed to get off the stage so he could continue with his show. She walked back slowly towards the wings, letting the hand he had still been holding fall to her side. She waved and smiled to the crowd the best she could in her clouded mind.

“Thank you everyone!” she shouted into her mic as she moved out of their view. She shoved her mic into the first set of hands that would take it as she wobbled her way over to a table with water bottles. She nearly choked as she tried to suck one down, hoping it would ease the dizzy feeling he had created with his lips. Her lips burned just as her forehead had earlier in the night.

He had kissed her. He had sang a love song with her and then he had kissed her. She couldn’t decipher if that kiss was a confirmation that he shared the same feelings for her or if it was just another act for the cameras. But his mouth felt so right against hers. They fit together like a pair of puzzle pieces. She tried to suppress the optimistic hope that rose in her chest, but it began to swallow her whole.

When she heard his next song begin, she made her way back to the spot that had become hers at the side of the stage. She watched him perform the rest of the show in a loving haze, doe eyed and hypnotized, lips still buzzing from his contact.

He gave it his all. By the last song he was out of breath, drenched in sweat, and looked like he was about to pass out at any second. The crowd applauded for minutes after he left the stage and they were still cheering when she finally caught sight of him again. His curls were stuck to his forehead and his skin was shiny and flushed. He was panting, still trying to recover from his workout of a finale show; but he was beaming. His smile seemed to turn him into a beacon, emitting a light and positive energy that drew everyone backstage towards him.

She was so transfixed on Harry as he thanked the crew and accepted congratulations from all around that she just about jumped out of her skin when Jeff slinked up behind her and whispered ‘boo’ in her ear.

“What the fuck, Jeff,” she chuckled as she caught her breath, resting her hand on her chest and feeling her racing heartbeat.

“I just wanted to congratulate you on being half of the best fake couple out there,” he teased. “That kiss was perfect. People are losing their minds over it.”

“Oh,” she said softly, feeling every emotion she was distracted from while watching Harry rush back into her. Her heart sank as she remembered all the questions that continued to haunt her since she got off stage. “Thanks,” she murmured, plastering a smile onto her face. “I’m glad we could make you proud.”

“If you two could convince me, you can convince anyone.” Jeff walked off moments later, leaving her to sit in her confused thoughts as he disappeared into the hoards of bodies waiting for their minute with Harry.

She knew that she didn’t ‘convince’ Jeff of anything on her part. Everything she did with Harry was authentic and truthful. Including the thrilled grin that appeared on her face when she finally made eye contact with the exhausted man across the room. She gave him a shy wave that he sheepishly returned, biting back a shy smile. He pointed in the direction of his dressing room and mouthed “meet me in 15.”

She could never say no to him.

Fifteen minutes later, she was knocking on the large wooden door that had a single piece of paper that read STYLES haphazardly taped onto it. When it finally flew open, she was met by a soaking wet Harry with a towel hanging dangerously low on his hips. Her eyes trailed down his body without permission, taking in the toned torso that was decorated with his beautiful tattoos. Her eyes hovered over the two ferns that sat on his pelvis, too fascinated with the dark ink to pull her eyes away just yet.

She had obviously seen him in various states of undress before. They lived together on a tour bus without much space to exist with privacy, but this was different. He wasn’t rushing to get dressed or quickly changing his outfit. And he wasn’t moving away from her gaze at all.

If she hadn’t been so entranced by him, she would have noticed he was looking her up and down in the exact same manner.

She had changed since she had seen him last. The skin-tight black velvet romper she had brought along for the afterparty now fit her snuggly and held her every curve. The dark fabric was tight and appeared almost painted on, a rainbow racing stripe making its way down either side of her chest. The short shorts of the outfit exposed nearly all of her legs and the deep neckline put much of her chest on display as well. It’s long sleeves were her favorite part, as a strip of fringe dangled from below her arms any time she moved.

“You look great,” Harry finally choked out, his voice pulling their eyes back up to the other’s face.

“Oh, thanks,” she said, slightly awkwardly. “You too.”

“Well, I’m hopefully not going to the after party dressed like this,” he chuckled before stepping aside and ushering her into the room.

His dressing room was much larger than hers and she settled herself on the brown leather couch in the corner as she waited for him to get ready, sneaking glances up from her phone often. She chuckled as she watched him spend far too long fussing with his curls in the mirror, but was quickly distracted by the way his back and arms flexed when he reached up to muse his hair. Once he was satisfied with the way it fell, he disappeared into the bathroom at the back of the room. When he emerged, he was finally dressed, allowing her to take a deep breath and to focus on something other than his bare skin for the first time since he had opened the door.

The black satin suit was simple for him, but the tight white tank top that sat underneath hugged every muscle in his torso. She knew as soon as he got in the hot club, he would lose the jacket, and she would be devastatingly distracted once again.

The narcissist took one final look at himself in the mirror before turning to her and extending a hand. “Ready, darling?”

“You just spent 15 minutes exclusively on your hair and you’re asking me if I’m ready?” she teased as she took his hand, weaving her fingers between his as they exited the room together.

He leaned down close to her ear as they walked down the now mostly empty hallway, lips brushing over the hollow of her ear as he spoke. “I could have done it faster, but you were so obviously enjoying the show.”

“Relax yourself, Magic Mike,” she muttered indignantly, but hung her head in a way she hoped he couldn’t see how flustered he made her. Was she really that obvious?

They walked hand in hand out to the parking garage, now caught in a back and forth about whether or not Harry could be a male stripper. He said yes. She said no, although she did admit at one point that he worked his mic stand like a pole.

“Hey Jeff,” he called when they finally reached the parking garage where Jeff and Glenne had been waiting for them to head to the club. “Do you think I could be a stripper?”

“I think people would pay a lot to see it, but they may be disappointed in your dancing skills.”

“Come on,” he playfully whined. “I have some moves.”

“You have one move,” Y/N cut in with a chuckle, “and it’s the wiggle.” She brought her hands up near her chest, tilted her head back while dramatically biting her lip, and swayed her arms by her sides, earning a chorus of laughter from the people around her.

She hadn’t even realized she had done the move without releasing Harry’s hand first, dragging his arm into her dance as well, until their manager commented on it. “You know, you two don’t have to be holding hands all the time and keeping the show up back here,” he said with a slightly suspicious quirk in his eyebrows.

Her smile had been in the process of fading, like they had been caught doing something wrong, before Harry answered smoothly. “We know. Just practicing.”

There were those words again. Just practicing, she thought over to herself. But was he practicing anymore? How many flirty comments, heartfelt compliments, and warm touches did it take to cross the line of practicing to the real thing?

She wasn’t sure about Harry, but she knew that she wasn’t just practicing anymore.

She knew that the way they sat nearly on top of each other in the large SUV on the way to the club felt more than friendly. And the way he hadn’t stopped touching her in some way since they left his dressing room insinuated far more than something with business-like intentions. And the way he looked at her everytime he caught her eye the entire way to the club, always with a bright smile and adoring gaze that she always returned, pulled at her heartstrings far more than they should have if this was all an act.

A sloppy and cheeky grin settled almost permanently on his features after he had a few drinks in him, his arms moving in a lazy and fluid manner as she took in his many tattoos that he had exposed when he ditched his jacket (just like she knew he would). His butterfly was visible through the tight ribbed fabric of the white tank top and the little birds that peaked out from underneath seemed to be inviting her even closer to him in her now inebriated state.

All she wanted to do was to connect her lips with his as she watched him make conversation with someone from his management, entranced by the way his perfect mouth moved as he spoke. She once again craved the shocks of electricity that were created between them at the contact and could not stop thinking about it no matter how hard she tried. The protective hand that had settled onto her hip and continued to hold her close to his body just wasn’t enough anymore.

The pair had been drinking far too much; martinis turning into vodka sodas that had turned into straight tequila shots. She believed it was tequila shot four that did her in. The last thing she remembered was licking the line of salt off the back of her hand, downing the shot, and being entranced by Harry’s eyes as she bit down on the slice of lime he held carefully with his jeweled fingers.  

***

The next morning, Y/N woke up in a hotel room that she didn’t recognize with a pounding headache and a swirling gut. It felt like she had been hit with a truck and she could barely pick her head up off the pillow.

She had so many questions about what had happened the night before. Where was she? Who let her drink that much? Whose clothes was she wearing? But most of all, what the hell happened after that fourth shot?

But she realized the worst was yet to come when she heard soft snoring coming from beside her. She knew that snoring well. It was the snoring that kept her up half the night for the last two months and the one that had almost driven her to suffocating her bus-mate in his sleep; the snoring that matched the crumbled black suit she just noticed in a ball on the floor.

It took every ounce of strength in her body to pull herself from the pillow and turn around in the bed to have her suspicions confirmed.

There he was.

His dark long eyelashes were fluttered down across the tops of his cheeks and his hair was going in every direction, skin clammy like his body was trying to rid itself of all the poison he had ingested the night before. The crumpled comforter was pushed down his stomach, his bare skin holding a sheen that helped define every dip or curve of his muscles and the tiniest bit of the band of his boxers peaked out to assure her that he at least wasn’t fully naked next to her.

Why were they in bed together? And why did he look so good? Oh my god, she thought as a possibility dawned on her. Did we sleep together?

“Harry,” she murmured softer than she intended, voice scratchy and mouth dry. The soreness at the back of her throat clued her into the copious amounts of screaming she must have done last night. He didn’t stir at her gentle coaxing, the light streaming through the windows making him look angelic as it covered him in a blanket of soft light while he continued to sleep.

It was a hard nudge to his chest that finally made him open his eyes, immediately releasing a groan she was sure she made when she regained consciousness too. He looked at her puzzled, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he propped himself up on his elbows. He took an equally confused look around the hotel room before looking back at her. She watched as the gears slowly turned in his head until his eyes opened wide and he spring up into a sitting position to mirror hers.

“We didn’t,” he whispered hopefully. “Oh my god, did we?” he asked, a look of horror crossing his face that matched her own.

“I have no idea,” she anxiously replied. “I was hoping you would know!”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“The last thing I remember was doing tequila shots with you.”

“I remember those.” He rubbed his eyes hard like it would somehow jog his memory. His eyebrows knit together, buried in thought as he searched his brain for a timeline. “I can follow the night up until we did karaoke.”

“We did karaoke?” she repeated incredulously and was met with a somber nod. “Do I even want to know what we sang?”

He shook his head slowly, shame clear on his face, before he finally mumbled. “We did ‘It’s Raining Men.’”

“Oh my god, no,” she whined, holding her head in her hands and rubbing her temples. There were surely videos of them sloppily singing on top of a bar circulating online and she wasn’t sure how Jeff would be able to spin that one in a positive light.

“Where’s your phone?” he asked, a hopeful glint in his eye as he reached for his own. “Maybe there’s something on there that can clue us in.” It took her a moment but she finally spotted it on the ground in the corner of the room. She said a silent prayer that it wasn’t dead or broken.

Forcing her heavy limbs out from under the covers she made her way towards the device, but not before she heard a confused sound coming from Harry. “How did you get my clothes?”

Looking down at herself and taking in the red lettering that read But Daddy I Love Him across her chest, it clicked that the t-shirt and baggy basketball shorts were his. But how they hell did she get into them?

“I think we’ve established at this point that I don’t know anything that happened after about midnight, Harry.” Her words came out laced with slight frustration. She hoped he knew she wasn’t annoyed with him, just their situation.

“Just a question, princess.”

She ignored his quip and began to search through her texts, call history, and photos, hoping to find anything at all that could help trace their steps through the night. She found nothing but a few selfies of them still at the club. One was the pair casually smiling, the next was one of him kissing her on the cheek that made her skin warm, but the final one made her snort out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“I have a picture on my phone of you with two martini olives shoved up your nose,” she spoke through hysterical laughter. “Definitely birthday post material if you ask me.”

“Let me see,” he demanded with an adorable scowl.

She passed her phone over to him, still letting a few chuckles fall past her lips. “I’m gonna change your name in my phone to ‘Olive Nose Styles.”

“You're cruel.”

“You’re the one that put olives up his nose and then posed for a picture!”

“Whatever,” he grumbled, turning attention back to his own screen to continue his investigation. “There’s nothing of use on my phone either.”

The two flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling in the frustrated confusion. There was so much of their night that had gone up into smoke, completely unaccounted for with no clues as to what they did. Each traced their steps over and over again in their heads as they hoped desperately for a single detail that would lead them down a path to bigger memories, but it never came.

“Are we going to have to call Jeff and ask him what happened?” she finally murmured.

“I think so.”

“He’s going to put us both in client timeout, isn’t he?”

“We’re probably already there,” he groaned as he picked up his phone and hit Jefe Jeff-e in his contact list, putting the call on speaker and resting it on his still bare chest. The man on the other end picked up almost immediately.

“Morning Sleeping Beauty, I was wondering when I was going to hear from you.”

“Hi Jeff,” he groggily started then stopped, searching for the words that would make this all less uncomfortable. “Y/N and I have some questions about last night.”

Jeff let out a strained chuckle. “Yeah, that doesn’t really surprise me after last night’s bar bill.”

“Um,” Harry hummed, stammering but unable to form any real words.

“You sing about sex for a living,” she hissed at the man next to her before yanking the phone off his chest. “Jeff,” she started, taking over the conversation for them both. “Do you know if we slept together?”

“Probably not. You both were pretty unconscious when I put you in the hotel room.” His words prompted a massive sigh from both of them, looking to each other to share a relieved smile.

“Oh thank god,” they mumbled in unison.

“Jinx,” he smirked under his breath, prompting a ‘shut up’ from her.

“How did I get into Harry’s clothes?”

“I stopped by the tour bus when I realized you two probably shouldn’t be trusted not to roll out of your top bunks. I got you some clothes to sleep in before we took you guys to the hotel.”

“But why Harry’s?”

It was Jeff’s term to get squirmy. “I felt weird going through your things.”

“But you were perfectly fine with going through mine?” Harry asked, only half joking.

“Absolutely,” he deadpanned. They were all quiet for a moment before Jeff began again. “You two really don’t remember anything else that happened?”

“Everything after about two is unaccounted for,” she confessed.

“Oh,” Jeff chuckled. “So, you don’t remember when you stuck your tongues down each other’s throats on the ride home?”

Fuck.

Her eyes raced up to Harry’s from the phone she had been staring at like it held all the secrets of the night before. His easily readable features displayed all his emotions that surely matched hers. His pupils had grown in surprise, taking over nearly all the green in his wide eyes, and an embarrassed blush tinted his cheeks in a red hot flush that had reached the tips of his ears. His eyes flashed to the blank wall in front of them, running a stressed hand through his curls, like if he wasn’t looking at her, he would be able to focus better on the newly revealed information.

She couldn’t say that she didn’t relate. Her mind often went blank when she looked at him too. But right now, it was racing, occupied by anxious thoughts and intense emotions she couldn’t quite place, but felt with her entire being.

Her inevitable downward spiral was interrupted when Harry stiffly cleared his throat. “Uh,” he started, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. “We’ll see you later.”

“Sounds good, love birds,” Jeff replied, a clear snark apparent in his voice. Neither of the pair dignified his teasing with a response, Y/N quickly ending the call.

Silence hung heavy in the air and she let her eyes hover over the phone for too long when she settled it down on the bed, unwilling to connect her eyes with his just yet. Harry always had a way of staring into her and revealing all her cards to him before she even knew them herself. She wanted to hold them close to her chest for a moment, protecting the heart that longed for him more than anything else in the world.

There were no words exchanged between the two for a while as they silently took turns in the bathroom and occupied their hands and thoughts by their phones. They walked on eggshells anytime one neared the other. A tension like this hadn’t existed since the very first day they met, the first day they had begun to pretend.

Maybe that's why Harry was being so quiet. Maybe he never wanted to cross that line of pretending like she did. Maybe she had been blinded by his generally friendly personality and tricked herself into thinking there was anything more than a charade between them. Maybe last night really was just a drunken mistake, no matter how much she wanted it to be more.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t remember what happened last night,” she finally murmured from the opposite end of the room. She rested the side of her still heavy head and muscles against the wall, arms crossed in front of her as if they could keep her safe from the tension they had created. Her fingers nervously played with the hem of his t-shirt she was still dressed in.

“Why is it a good thing?” he almost immediately responded from the chair on the other side of the room he had settled himself into, running his hands along the satin pants of last night’s outfit he had put back on during their awkward shuffling around the room. He had even put physical space between them since they found out what happened, causing her heart to feel as if it was teetering on the edge of disintegrating.

“Well,” she stuttered, refusing to look at him and continuing to pick at her nail polish. “We’re just pretending so it would be weird if we really remembered it.”

“I don’t think it would be weird.”

“I don’t know,” she tried to maneuver her way around his response. “It might just be embarrassing to think about it.”

He let out a long and frustrated sigh, running his hands down his face. There was so much going on behind his eyes and she wished he would say something, anything, to break down the wall that hadn’t existed between them in months that was slowly reappearing.

“Do you regret it?” he asked bluntly, the abrupt question shocking her body to attention. “Do you regret any of this? Any of us?”

Did she regret drinking too much? Yes. Did she regret making out with him in front of their manager? Yes. Did she regret denying her feelings and pretending they didn’t exist for so long? Of course. But, did she regret falling in love with him? Never, not even for a second.

“No, I don’t,” she let out with a gentle shake of her head, no louder than a whisper.

“Neither do I.”

The words had barely left his lips before he crossed the room and crashed them into hers. The same fire she had felt on stage returned ten times over as his lips moved smoothly over hers, every neuron in her body lighting up like a switchboard. Her fingers reached up to curl into his hair and pull his lips impossibly closer to hers as her heart hammered in her chest with a passionate love she had kept under wraps for so long.

He tasted like the spicy peppermint toothpaste the hotel stocked in the bathroom and smelled like the tiny bottles of shampoo that rested on the side of the bathtub; but there was so much else about him that was completely unique–wholly irreplaceable and indescribable. He was just Harry.

Teeth clashed, lips were bitten, and hair was pulled as they took in every sensation the other created. His lips had been the only thought that captivated her mind since they were on stage the night before and her return to them did not disappoint. If her head wasn’t dizzy and her lungs not screaming at her for air, she would have stayed in that moment forever

When they finally disconnected, they stood against each other in a heaving and disheveled mess of heavy breathing and adoringly dazed smiles. She swore she could feel the pounding of his heart under her fingertips that rested on his chest.

“That was nice,” he eventually murmured down at her through heavy breaths, a love drunk grin finding its way onto his swollen lips.

“Yeah, I agree,” she hummed breathlessly, her anxious thoughts quiet and calm for the first time she could remember since she met him.

“I’m kind of disappointed I don’t remember doing that the first time,” he chuckled softly at her, shaking his head lightly in embarrassment with his pink tinged cheeks on full display.

“That’s okay. We were ‘just practicing’ then, right?” A giggle left her lips as she used the words against him. The same words he had used every time they let a glimpse of their true affections for each other slip past their guarded and friendly facade.

His dimples were exposed when he smiled a giant grin and let out a knowing huff, piecing together that she had caught onto his trail of excuses. “Yeah, just practicing,” he repeated softly, before his tone turned sincere and genuine. “I don’t want us to pretend anymore.”

“Good,” she said softly as her fingers slid up his neck to beckon his lips back down to hers. “I never was.”

“Neither was I.” She watched a soft smirk appear on his lips as they hovered over hers. “Do you want to keep not practicing?”

“Depends,” she quipped, lips brushing over his as she spoke. “Am I better kisser than Taylor Swift?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!! REBLOGS AND FEEDBACK MEAN THE WORLD!!! 

An extra for our babies can be found here!

[adobe-outdesign]

thank you for doing neopets reviews! could you review hissi, including my favorites UC plushie and darigan hissi? thank you!

Hissi are pretty simple, basically just a snake with wings, but they're a well-designed snake with wings, which is what matters. The wings themselves add a lot of memorability to what would otherwise be a pretty generic design, and the light yellow underbelly breaks up the solid color a bit while accenting the eyes. Another nice feature are the rattlesnake-like spots, which add just the right amount of detail to the design.

For the most part, Hissi were mostly left unharmed from conversion... except for the wings. Changing the wings into more hand-like structures is just such a strange decision—no other Neopet with wings had this done, for starters (Pteris and Lennys just had their wings cupped a bit, but weren't given anything resembling hands). Plus, was it really so important to have them hold items that it was worth screwing with one of the best parts of the design? Converted Hissi are still pretty nice, don't get me wrong, but the original will always be the better version.

Favorite Colors:

Darigan: The UC Darigan Hissi is just amazing. The body is fairy straightforward, now sporting spikes and V-shaped underbelly scales, but the big changes are to the tail, mouth, and wings. The mouth has a long tongue, the tail is extra thin and long with a black tip, and the wings were given this awesome webbed look with very distinct anatomy. The purple-and-black palette also looks great. I do wish the tongue was maybe a yellow or a blue, as the green feels a little out of place, but it's otherwise pretty fantastic.

The converted version is... fine. It's just inevitable that a design that relies on unique body shapes would feel more generic when converted. On the plus side, the conversion is pretty loyal, missing only the black from the spikes and sporting slightly different spots. Either way, a good color all around.

Halloween: Continuing with the spooky vibes, Halloween Hissis have always been pretty cool-looking. They sport a black-and-red base color that works well on its own, and then top it with a really nice-looking set of bones that resemble actual snake vertebrae. Particularly nice is the skull, which doesn't have a jaw and sits on top of the head, with a pair of fangs to boot. I do think the wings look a bit clunky due to being entirely bone instead of only partially, and the eyes might've worked better with the accent red, but overall a really nice design.

Faerie: I've just always found this one very pretty. It sports a fairly low-contrast palette of blue, turquoise, and purple, but it just works really nicely together. It having four pairs of wings is pretty cool conceptually, and the second pair have a bright turquoise inside that really make them pop. The body also has a lot more spots than usual, including sort of a mottled purple that goes over the entire body, and the yellow eyes accent the body well. I have heard it said that it would be better without the hand-wings, which is agreeable, but overall this one's just really pretty.

BONUS: Reviewing this one on request. The plushie Hissi isn't really my cup of tea, but it is very cute, sporting a well-worn look and a soft color palette befitting of an old plushie. It's very cute, and I love the tongue on the UC version.

However, I guess my issue with the UC version is that it never really felt much like a Hissie to me, on account of the wings being down and the entire head being vastly different. I feel like the best UC plushies still keep the iconography of the base pet, but here it gets lost a bit. Still, its an appealing pet if you're into that kind of look.

(The converted version is mostly accurate to the UC, but the brow ridges drive me nuts because the perspective on them is all wrong. But I digress.)

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Dark Shenanigans - Nandor x (f)reader

Summary: It’s Nadja’s something hundredth birthday, with that said, you’re on a mission to make it great.

Warning: fluff, general vampire nonsense

Masterlist

“Yeah being a half vampire half human does have its perks. I mean for one I can do all that cool vampire shit and I can go out in the sunlight...so that helps for when they’re all being really annoying.” You admit with a casual shrug to one of the documentary cameras before turning to an isle of party supplies. “So anyways we’re at this store.”

The camera shifts to the multiple arras of supplies and materials at the local supermarket in Staten Island that you and your vampire lover’s human familiar, Guillermo, currently are. Specifically on the hunt for birthday decorations for Nadja and ghost Nadja who’s possessed a strange looking doll for the time being.

Since the other four actual full vampires can’t shop for themselves at this time of day or really in general, you and Guillermo have been given such an honorable task in making Nadja’s birthday the best one yet. Considering she’s the most well balanced in the head out of the four of them and is the only other lady of the manor.

“Hey Y/N, how’s this look?” Wonders Guillermo as he holds up a bunch of Mardi Gras beads of yellows, purples, and greens. “Comments, questions, concerns?” He adds with a small smile.

Eyeing up the beads, your head shifts over to the other various colors, “Hrmm, G I’m feeling the vibe you’re going for this year and I like it, but let’s go with Nadja colors.”

Guillermo’s dark eyes light up at your positive suggestion, “Right! So the red and black ones then?”

“Yup. She’ll love that shit.” You state with a satisfied nod of approval, “Let’s get some black and gold confetti from over there and oh, those masquerade masks look cool as fuck.”

You pick up and test out various masks in the background as Guillermo adds some bits of dialogue for the documentary crew, “Um yeah she’s really cool isn’t she.” He says with a smile while glancing at you then back to the camera, “Which is kind of odd since Y/N’s been with Nandor since 1793 so you’d think she’d be a little more like them but no, she’s super chill and really nice.” Suddenly his face goes a bit serious as he leans in to whisper, “But she did kill a whole street gang once when they threw a slur at me so I wouldn’t mess with her. For your safety.”

The camera pans back over to an oblivious you who’s put on a masquerade mask and is swinging a plastic light saber around with a whole lot more accuracy and grace then would a normal person. The camera then pans back to Gullimero, “Um, I’m just gonna....make sure she doesn’t smack anyone.”

——

Arms full of groceries of food for you and Gullimero, as well as random party decorations for Nadja’s birthday tomorrow night, you use the bottom of your boot to skillfully open the door as the documentary crew and Guillermo follows suit. Guillermo now on the verge of falling over with the large heart shaped pillow in his arms that’s covering most of his body.

You don’t feel tired in the slightest due to your half vampiric abilities so this is nothing to you, “Alright.” You state, turning on your heel to face the crew and Guillermo, “They’re asleep so we gotta be extra sneaky now, I don’t want Nadja catching us with all this cool spooky birthday shit. Everyone to the attic!” You whisper yell before leading the charge to the attic.

They all follow as quietly and as quickly as they can and then soon enough in no time are you and Guillermo back outside in the sunny garden trying to figure out if you should blow up the giant sea monster pool floaty.

“I mean it would look cool as hell and no doubt out-do whatever the fuck boring thing Lazlo probably has planned.” You quip with a shrug while the two of you stare thoughtfully at the small gloomy dark pond. “He’s got no chance with us. I’ve won best decorator and card maker for two hundred years in a row.”

Guillermo side eyes you in honest amazement, “Wow that’s a lot of years. And cards.”

“I know. I was an artist in the 12th century but my no good terrible good for nothing piece of garbage trash sexist human husband, who I was forced to marry when I was only sixteen, took all the credit for my artwork in that era.” You confirm with a growl, “But it stings less because once I finally grew into my powers and strength at eighteen I simply made his untimely demise look like an accident.” You add with a smirk.

“Oh, wow.” Mutters the intrigued familiar.

“Precisely. The old fool was thrown off his horse because I told Philip, the horse, to throw him off. And he did. Which killed the idiot so I got the house and all of his money.”

“That’s......neat.” Mutters Guillermo as he shoots the camera crew from behind you and him a nervous look. “Uh the suns going down so I should probably help Nandor out of his coffin.”

Raising your head to the sky you immediately see how the sun has begun to paint the clouds in beautiful colors of oranges, reds, light pinks, and darkening purples. “Oh, how bout that. Yeah alright let’s get inside.” You nod to Guillermo before turning to walk towards the manor’s giant mahogany doors.

——

Turning the handle and walking a couple feet into the large main room that holds itself as a sort of crossroads for all the other various connecting hallways and staircases. You don’t make it even three more steps towards the left ascending staircase before you hear the highly recognizable voice of your one and only.

“Y/N! My lovely wife and favorite person still ever so lovely!” Announces Nandor loudly with a grand smile showing off his pearly white fangs, “How I have missed you and your morning kisses. Where have you been off to?” He wonders softly as you smile a big dumb love-struck grin right back up at him, you’d absolutely die to hear that accent one last time.

“I can’t tell you right now it’s a secret!” You whisper yell back, causing his thick dark brows to scrunch up in confusion.

“But I am your lovely strong puff dragon Y/N.” Whines Nandor adorably as you roll your eyes at the cameras before looking back up at him.

“Fine. Come here then.”

In an instant he’s at your side, excitedly awaiting what secretive news you will tell him, “Okay, so we know it’s Nadja’s birthday tomorrow right?”

“Yes. I remember because she hasn’t shut up about it.”

“Right. So me and Gullimero got some fun surprise birthday party decorations and they’re in the attic and we can’t tell Nadja.”

Nandor gives you a knowing look of affirmation as he leans in closer to you, his demeanor suddenly shifting into a more saddened one, “You went shopping without me?” He says quietly.

Leaning up to give him a quick peck on the cheek your hands instantly find his, “Just for a little while, but I still need to find more stuff so....you wanna come?”

Nandor’s big dark eyes light up with joy as you hand him a kind smile, “Yes! Let us go in search of unknown treasures for our lady friend Nadja so she will not be mad at us for terrible dull gifts of friendship.”

Laughing you give his hands a playful squeeze, “Come on I’ll race you to Party City!” You say before leading him past the camera crew and Guillermo who simply watches the two of you leave, glad to have an hour of peace.

“There’s a whole city for partying? Y/N why have we never been to this place?”

——

“Y/N there are no people partying here.” Whines your vampire lover in puzzlement as he follows you from the entrance to a side isle. “You said this was a city for partying.”

“That’s just the name of the store Nans.” You retort with a small chuckle as he looks from right to left at all the color coded party plates and napkins galore.

“Well the title is very misleading.”

“Agreed.”

Turning to the right you guide him towards the decretory pirate themed isle in search of something that will peak his interest. Also you wanted so badly to make it to this spot but Gullimero was a man on a mission so your intention was thwarted for when you had Nandor with you.

Speed walking down the pirate themed isle you quickly halt all movement as Nandor’s large body stops within less than an inch from your back. Smiling brightly you snatch the desired object in front of you and as swift as a cat turn to face him.

“Have you come for a dual my old enemy?” You speak slyly, eyes narrowed as you hold the foam sword right in front of his face. “I sense a nervousness about you. Tell me, are you ready to face your inevitable bloody end?”

Staring at the pointy foam, his dark puppy eyes shift over to you as an adorable fangy grin breaks out across his pale face, “Seems you have come prepared, oh radiant and alluring seductress. Well, so have I!” Shouts Nandor before grabbing two foam swords from off the rack and swinging them in both hands like a mad man.

Taking a cautious step back you hold your pathetic five dollar sword in both hands like a true warrior ready for battle, “Only one shall leave this place alive.” You affirm with a smirk, “And it’s not going to be you.”

“Arrrrrggg.” Bellows your lover as he charges you like the true conqueror that he once was. But all to soon do you swiftly duck under his arms and swat him over his stomach with a confident thwack sound.

He makes a puny little “oww” as you turn around to face him once again, “Y/N you hit me kind of hard.” He complains, looking rather defeated and genuinely hurt that you could have intentionally injured him on purpose.

Bringing the plastic weapon down to your side once again, your face suddenly softens as you walk over to him, “Come here you big baby.” You quip sincerely as he leans down so you can give his cheek a quick kiss.

Rising back to his full height, Nandor almost blushes as the corners of his eyes crinkle into a happy smile, “Actually it didn’t hurt at all I just wanted you to kiss me.” Reveals the vampire with a proud grin as you simply roll your eyes.

“Should have known.” You add before turning and snatching up four more plastic foam pirate swords for the others. “Alright let’s get outta here, follow me my love, to the checkout line we shall purchase our weapons of war and partying on the high seas.” You announce with gusto as Nandor stands proudly at your side, ready to follow you anywhere.

“Yes. To check out.”

——

Kicking open the unlocked door, Nandor bursts into the vampire residence with bags full of goodies for Nadja’s birthday party. You right behind him but less dramatically, “We’re back!” You shout to no one in particular as Colin Robinson suddenly appears from out of nowhere, looking ready to leave with his funny little hat and usual beige jacket.

“Oh hey guys,” He starts with a friendly nod, “I’m just heading out on the town tonight. I guess there’s a fair or something in the park and I wanted to test my skill at the ball toss. I’ve been reading up on the body mechanics and how the game is set up which seems pretty basic all in all. Also I really want to win a stuffed bear this time, it might add a little pizazz to my room. Welp see ya’round.” Adds Colin before walking past the two of you without another word and out into the night he goes with some of the camera crew following close behind.

Nandor turns to you with a look of annoyance, “Jeesh I thought he would never leave. Let’s go to your room I want to kiss you some more now.”

“Why my room?”

“Because since you are half vampire you get to sleep in a bed and because I am a full vampire I sleep in a coffin.” Inquires Nandor while looking at you with those big beautiful dark eyes of his, “And my coffin is too small for cuddles so your room will suffice.”

“Yeah that’s a fair point.” You shrug before following him to your room.

After many cuddles leading to other more rated R type activities that lasted until just about sunrise, you finally got some well needed rest while the sun shone high in the sky until she began her dramatic descend back into oblivion. Opening your eyes you slowly rise from out of your comfy bed, already missing the presence of your obsidian eyed lover.

He gets too nervous about your closed windows for fear that the sun might burn him which would be impossible because you black out the glass. But alas, he’s very cautious about these types of things and won’t risk it for anything, though he feels bad about leaving you in the morning, you understand.

Suddenly it dawns on you that today or perhaps tonight, is Nadja’s birthday and you completely forgot to set up any decorations. Shit, how stupid. Throwing the blankets off of you, your feet move quick as you speedily change yesterday’s outfit for something a bit nicer and more clean.

Racing out of your room and into the dimly lit manor hallway, you make a bee line for the attic but before you’re able to reach the steps, Guillermo runs into you, just about knocking you into a wall of various stolen ancient weapons. Sharp ones at that.

That was close.

“Y/N are you okay!” Worries the familiar as you quickly gather your bearings.

“Guillermo! The decorations! Nadja’s birthday!” You whisper yell as the human man simply smiles. “Why are you smiling, this situation does not call for smiles.”

“Don’t worry. While you were sleeping I set up all the decorations.” He replies with a shrug, “No problem.”

“What? But that must have taken you all day, you could have asked me for help. I would have come.” Your brows furrow as he shakes his head, though you still feel bad for not helping with anything.

“Well I did try, but um,” Gullimero awkwardly clears his throat, giving the camera a quick glance, “Nandor was with you and last time I asked for you while you and him where having alone time he threatened to carve out my eyeballs and force feed them to me.”

Pinching the bridge of your nose in annoyance you take a deep breath, “Sounds like him. Very creative when he wants to be, alright, well....where’s everyone?”

“Oh, they’re not up yet. I was actually on my way to get you. I made blood popsicles and the pool floaty is all done and in the pond.” He says with a sense of pride for his decorating skills. “I think she’ll like what we’ve come up with this year.”

-

Standing in the living room with your three fellow immortals you search a dresser for her card, “Oh shit where’s my card? I could have sworn I had it yesterday on my dresser but I don’t remember seeing it there in the morning. Maybe it’s in this one?”

“Witches!” Hisses Nadja as you huff in frustration, where the hell did you put that damn card?

“Oh, Y/N my love,” Intervenes Nandor with a gentle tug of your sleeve, “I took it with me when I left your room before sunrise because I wanted to put my name on it too so she would know it’s from us.”

“What?” Replies Lazlo dramatically, “Now hold on just a damn minute, this card competition is individually scored so I won’t be having any of this nonsense. I worked really hard on mine this year.”

“Oh lick a donkey’s arse, look here,” You retort with, quickly holding up the card for Nadja, “there are two separate drawings on ours so either way if one of us wins she gets both our pictures. So you better hope your drawing doesn’t resemble a night clubs bathroom wall.”

“Yeah.” Mutters Nandor, who’s hiding behind you while resting both hands on either one of your shoulders as you glare at Lazlo.

“Fine.” Agrees Lazlo begrudgingly, “And mine will be amazing, this bitch of paper took me a whole six months to plan and produce. Can’t get quality this good anywhere else I guarantee it.” Adds Lazlo with a firm nod of self approval as you glance at the nearby camera.

“Right, okay everyone sit it’s time for presents. I want to know what you all got me.” Beams Nadja excitedly as she smiles a fangy grin in delight, plopping herself down in one of the arm chairs. Lazlo quickly finding the other one while you and Nandor seat yourself on the large couch. Colin and Guillermo finding somewhere to sit close by respectfully.

“Well, all I can say is hold onto your socks my dear cause this is going to blow you away.” Smirks Lazlo as he pulls a small box from out of his jacket pocket.

“If it’s a self made business card that says invitation to sexy town I will puke.” You deadpan while Nandor laughs from beside you, causing Lazlo to lose his smirk as Nadja hides her amusement the best she can manage.

“He he, sexy town, nice one Y/N.” Mutters Nandor with a proud grin as you raise a brow at Lazlo who’s giving you a hard glare.

“Oh, my dear pumpkin pie love, don’t listen to Y/N I will love anything you gift me.” Encourages Nadja with a bright welcoming smile, no doubt immediately boosting Lazlo’s once irked mood.

Rolling your eyes you shift a bit to find yourself leaning into Nandor’s body as Nadja opens up the rest of the vampire residents various gifts. A joyous fangy smile gracing her pale features every single time, revealing this birthday party was a thrilling success.

After much more fun that just about lasts throughout the whole night, and some rare but hilarious attempts at dancing between the five of you vampiric individuals. You’re feeling rather sleepy and you can tell Nandor is ready for a trip to dreamland as well.

Swaying to the lowly playing record instrumental, you hold Nandor tight while simultaneously enjoying the feeling of him so close, him doing just the same as he keeps you firmly pressed against his chest. His long dark hair tickles your face as he presses his head to your cheek, doing his absolute best to keep the flow without tripping up.

Sensing his growing fatigue, you gently squeeze his hand, “My love the sun will be up soon, let’s get you to bed, yes?”

A small lazy smile tugs at the corners of his lips while he looks down to meet your gaze, “But my dark angel I’m not tired. I want to dance with you a little longer.” He whines adorably before failing to conceal a big yawn.

Giggling, you lean back to slowly lead him towards the door, “That yawn says otherwise.”

“That wasn’t a yawn Y/N, I was just smiling really big.” He protests, though he still follows your lead to the door.

“I’ve never seen anyone smile like that.” You add with a raised brow.

“Well maybe that’s just how I smile.”

Letting out a breathy snort, you pull away from him to at last take his one hand, “Come. I can’t have a single ray of that dreaded sun to get a taste of your precious skin. Not on my watch.”

Glancing at the closed front door, Nandor squeezes your hand, “Well um, now since you’ve mentioned the sun...I think I’d like to go to my crypt now.” He says, the flash of worry crossing over his face for only a brief moment.

“You sure? I mean a sunrise is pretty beautiful if I’m being honest and I know you never get to see them...”

“Not funny Y/N. And not fair, you know I can’t because I am full vampire.”

“And you’re missing out.”

“And I’d like to stay alive Y/N.”

“Aren’t you dead?”

“Yes and I am your only husband so I need to stay not burnt to a crisp.”

Chuckling, you follow him down the hallway, “Oh really? Don’t want me finding myself with another vampiric lover? Some new beast to sweep me off my feet and take me away into the night.” You tease.

Side eyeing you, he frowns, “No. Don’t I sweep you off your feet?”

Stepping into his crypt you stop him with your hand against his bicep, “Always.” You whisper sincerely with a quick wink, causing him to break out into a big fangy grin.

“Good. And if anyone would try and whoo you I would make sure there would be no more whooing again!” Exclaims Nandor, making the candles rise in flame for only a short second at his rise in emotion for how much he loves you.

“I don’t doubt they would fall by your blade. Not for a second.”

[with-love-from-hell]

Please enjoy my and @offscreen-demon-flirting 's 5 minute ships!

~~~~~~~~~

Background: Fern is my friend's Mc for their playthrough of Obey me and we have a Hc started that Fern was a second exchange student that came to Devildom when Storm returns (season 2)! We basically talk DAILY about all the shenanigans that would ensue once Fern gets into hell and boy howdy its a wild time. Often times my chaotic versions of a MC are based on them in my head!

Read more about Fern under the cut (:

Name: Fern

Pronouns: They/them

Age: mid 20s

Height: 5’7”

Eye color: brown

Hair features: dyed dark green, naturally it’s brown. Chopped short and a little unruly.

Occupation: college dropout, tattoo artist apprentice

Favorite season: Fall

Favorite colors: green, blue, yellow

Likes: coffee, cats, art, napping, music, niche memes, dancing, eating but not cooking, ROCKS, bugs, plants, cheesy romance movies/books, ugly patterned clothing, being a hoe

Dislikes: horror (anything to do with it), blood, small spaces, loud noises, the ocean, formal wear, any shoe with a heel, people who don’t respect personal space, Solomon

Favorite Meal Prep: Mac n cheese (they really can’t cook)

MBTI Alignment: ISFP

Astrological Sign: Capricorn

Love languages (giving): quality time, acts of service

Love languages (receiving): words of affirmation, physical affection

Sexuality: Pansexual

Officially courted by: Diavolo

Crushes: Beel, Diavolo, Mammon, Satan, Thirteen

Closest Friends: Storm, Belphie, Mammon

General Headcanons:

They are definitely a high chaos individual - often pulling pranks with Mammon or Belphie

Meme supreme and will teach Dia vine references to make to Lucifer to annoy him

Anti-Lucifer League president and only tolerates Lucifer because of his relationship with Storm. (Will bond with him over hating Solomon though)

Generally kind of bad at taking care of themselves - can’t cook and has very bad insomnia. When they can’t sleep, they sketch.

Has secretly drawn tattoo ideas based off of each of the boys

Will 100% go out of their way to torment Solomon, even skipping classes

Loves drama that they’re not involved in

Highkey has abandonment issues due to childhood neglect and thus is very hard at opening up beyond their memelord exterior

One of their favorite things to do is go on midnight snack runs with Beel

Once started a rumor that Luke is actually a goblin masquerading as an angel because of his appearance and it still sticks to this day

Has ADHD and is dyslexic which is why they’ve always had such a hard time in school - thus studies with Satan because he’ll read the notes out loud to them and help them study

If anyone yells at them, get ready for instant tears. They have some past trauma with abusive exes.

They are a hyper big flirt but are very hesitant to pursue anything beyond casual flings

Wants Thirteen to punch them in the face.

[mogai-sunflowers]

opinions on birbs?

whats ur favorite one? mine is crows and ravens such handsome bois i love them

okay i could go off on this FOREVER because i've been OBSESSED with birds since i was like. 4.

i've been collecting bird feathers since i was 4 or 5. i have around 2,000+ in my collection, and i've actually found peacock feathers in the wild! i have a few peacock feathers, a crap ton of blue jay feathers (they were super common where i used to live, one time i found like 50 in one day!) i also have a lot of beautiful red cardinal feathers, which is actually really good because cardinals shed their feathers extremely rarely! the first one i found, i found accidentally by slipping on a patch of ice and i saw it when i sat up adflasdfasd.

i just want everyone to like. also admire the beauty of pheasant feathers, turkey tail feathers, grouse feathers, and blue jay feathers like.

[Image ID: A picture of a blue jay perched on a tree stump, with its wings and tail feathers spread revealing beautiful blue feathers with vibrant white and black patterns. End ID.]

THE COLORATION OF THIS PLUMAGE IS LITERALLY BREATHTAKING!

AND LOOK AT OWLS AND GROUSE FEATHERS!

[Image ID: Two images of two feathers, an owl and a grouse feather. Both are a dusty orange-brown color with black stripes. End iD.]

like feathers with stripes can never be overstated as beautiful like just. look at them. the coloration, the patterns, the details!

[Image ID: Two identical goldfinch feathers- they are golden yellow down the middle with bright yellow stems, and with wavy black-and-white patterns along the edges. End ID.]

gold finch feathers are some of my favorites too because they look more brown in photos but they are SO GOLDEN AND THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL!

[Image ID: A picture of a cardinal feather, completely vibrant red, laying horizontally on the gravel. End ID.]

now cardinal feathers are tricky. because in general, a majority of their plumage isn't super bright vibrant red, it's more of a dusty red-brown, but their tail feathers, especially the males, are actually as vibrant red as they look! i have a few and they're just so so pretty

and ofc, the mother of all feathers is the peacock feather. they're iridescent, they're patterned, they're huge, and they're fucking gorgeous! peacocks are little bitches but they have every right to be because DAMN they're pretty!

[Image ID: Two pictures of a peacock tail with beautiful feathers. They have green frills along the outside and are brown with blue "eyes" and a green circle outline. End ID.]

now some feathers that i think are really underrated are eagle feathers! yes, they are kind of dull in color and their patterning is fairly basic for a striped feather, but they're MASSIVE and so in person they're still really fricking cool just because of how big and impressive they are. one time, i was at a stonehenge site and i found a few laying around and i was practically crying, they're so cool!

[Image ID: A picture of several large, pointy eagle feathers- dark brown with white stripes. End ID.]

so yeah it's safe to say i love birds. their anatomy is so cool, their power is so cool, and some fly like. thousands of miles just to migrate for different seasons! i'd say my favorite birds are also ravens and crows, just because they're so beautiful and cute and also very gender, but i also love pileated woodpeckers, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, and rose finches!

[Image ID: A picture of a red-winged blackbird perched on a thin branch. It is entirely black except for a vibrant red patch with a golden yellow bottom on its wings. End ID.]

[Image ID: A picture of a rose finch perched on a thin green twig. It is small, plump, and pastel pink in color. End ID.]

[Image ID: A picture of a pileated woodpecker on the side of a tree. It is mainly black with white and black stripes on its neck and a vibrant red crest! End ID.]

[mariska]

here is a lil bit of fun fashion history i learned today and thought might be interesting to share;

so if u know me or have followed me p much anywhere online for the past few yrs especially u probably know i really do not like wearing a lot of modern style clothes (for the most part at least) and if i'm able to i prefer to get thrifted/pre-owned clothes from a whole bunch of different eras (also because Clothes Are Expensive and even if i did prefer modern styles i cant afford a lot of them normally unless huge sales are going on) but primarily my fav styles tend to be anywhere from like late 50's to mid 70's. i am disabled and have been my whole life and i only started being able to have any kind of income of my own in like late 2020 or early 2021 which means i have had a little bit more independence to find cool old clothes that i can afford and actually enjoy wearing, so thats been a huge positive change for me and my identity and getting to feel more like my Genuine Self by passing along clothes i can't or didn't want to wear now in my mid-20's to make room for fun vintage stuff i actually do want to wear.

lately i've been trying to find vintage nightgowns that are both clean/in good wearable condition and not expensive and a few days ago i happened to stumble onto a listing online for a super pretty light blue nylon nightgown in great pre-owned condition for $10 and was like oh my god thats awesome i need to get that; it came in the mail the other day and here's what it looks like:

(the lace is much more white irl, my house has very yellow tinted lighting and my bedroom walls are like the same color green as my comforter sheet here so it tends to make things look more yellow in pics than they actually are lmao)

its got super stretchy elastic around the bust & waist as u can see there so its pretty versatile with the fit and i am just in love with the general style and shape of it so much, very Edwardian Revival which i have a decent amount of in my closet cus i love old takes on even older fashion styles. so anyways i was folding it to put in my pj/nightgown drawer in my room and happened to notice it still had its' original tag on completely in tact on the inner lining near the bust/arm area and found one of my absolute favorite logos to find on vintage clothes tags:

Ladies Garment Union label!!! (International Ladies Garment Workers Union or ILGWU was a large clothing union group that made a lot of vintage clothes thru most of the 1900's and had a lot of different styled and colored tag logos like this on all their work over the decades), now there was not detailed info on the listing for this nightgown when i got it but the seller listed it as 70's era based on the style i assume, which i would've been fine with regardless of actual decade i just rly love comfy retro styles haha, but i was like yeah i can def see this being a 70's nightgown that checks out from my personal experience, but since i just noticed this label tonight i wanted to see if i could find a historical resource list of the different Union logos online because i have quite a few that look almost exactly like this specific tag and almost all of the other ones with it in my closet are from some time in the 60's.

so i found an awesome list with both info and example pictures of the Union tag logos throughout the decades from a site called sammydvintage and i was able to actually pin down the production date of this nightgown to less than a year of when it was made!!!

i know from my own experience that a lot of the 60's to early 70's era tags didn't have color printed on the logo yet so i was pretty sure it was from that general era and sure enough on the reference site i saw a pic of this same style logo with a timeline of 1964-1973; i was satisfied enough with that knowledge and was like yeah makes sense, this is probably early 70's towards the end of that.

NOPE! i read a little more on the page and it mentioned that the example picture on that site had a small (R) on the left side next to the logo, and that the R indicates the tag was printed after the Union trademarked the logo on April 21, 1964, so if you see a tag with that design but no little R, it was made *before* the logo was trademarked. sure enough, if you look at the pic i took of this gown's tag, there's no little R trademark next to the logo!

which means that, according to this site's information which seems very accurate and in-depth, this dress was made anywhere between June 28, 1963 (when the logo design changed from the previous version) to April 21, 1964. how cool is that!?!? i've never been able to ID such a specific less than a year date for a piece of vintage clothing i own before, and i was like 10 years off with my original guess lol!

it would be much more difficult to pin it down further obviously but knowing that new info, if i had to make an updated guess, i'd say this was probably either a Spring (of '64) or Fall/Autumn (of '63) fashion release since it's long and has sleeves but they aren't full-length sleeves and the nylon material is comfy but pretty thin for winter night-wear (it definitely could be though of course, i wouldn't be surprised if this was originally part of a multi-piece set that may have included a similar looking robe, sheer cape, or 'house coat' layer to wear over it since sleepwear sets like that were a very popular thing in 60's nightgown fashion)

i also thought it was cool in that '63-'64 was around the general era of this Edwardian/Victorian/Medieval Regal revival type trend having its early start which eventually helped popularize the style going into the remainder of the 60's and even further into the 70's with the eventual rise in popularity of brands like Gunne-Sax which has kind of become a cult classic icon of 70's 'cottagecore', 'prairie', 'medieval/regal' revival dresses from that era. that '63-'64 date timeline also makes complete sense in a more widespread pop culture way that i can't un-see now that i know when it was made; the 1965 movie version of The Sound Of Music was one of many popular pieces of media from that time that contributed heavily to the general popularization of this mod regal revival dress style, and if you changed the poofiness of the sleeves and lowered the length of my blue nightgown here, it has SUCH a similar silhouette structure to Liesl's "gazebo" dress from the '16 going on 17' music number from that movie:

(bonus Fun Fact Within A Fun Fact: Mitski drew inspiration from that dress when she was working with the costume designers/creators for her 2022 tour outfits and had them made in 4 different colors all together, i believe. its a very good dress 💜)

anyways!!! i just wanted to share this fun deep dive into vintage fashion i unintentionally went on tonight because i am so excited to have learned so much information from such a random nightgown thrifting find. i have a huge special interest not only in the history of vintage fashion/trends/pop culture but also archiving that history and investigating the origins/influences of seemingly mundane bits of every day life in the past so this was such an awesome and exciting discovery to me! definitely makes me want to take out my other clothes with the various Union tags still on them and see if i can narrow down more detailed years for those pieces too 🥰